Reich, Nunn and Boren endorse Obama over Clinton
BOSTON—Former Clinton Cabinet member Robert Reich said Friday he was endorsing Barack Obama -- and not Hillary Rodham Clinton -- in the battle for the Democratic presidential nomination.
Two other Democratic elder statesmen, former Sens. Sam Nunn of Georgia and David Boren of Oklahoma, also said they were supporting the Illinois senator.
Reich, who served as Labor secretary under President Bill Clinton, said in a blog post that "although Hillary Clinton has offered solid and sensible policy proposals, Obama's strike me as even more so."
Reich also said Obama's plans for reforming Social Security and health care have a better chance of succeeding, and his approach to the nation's housing crisis and financial market failures "are sounder than" the New York senator's.
Reich is a former Rhodes scholar and a Yale Law School graduate who is a longtime friend of Bill and Hillary Clinton. He ran for governor in Massachusetts in 2002 and now is a professor at the University of California-Berkeley.
At least two other former Clinton Cabinet members also have endorsed Obama.
Former Denver Mayor Federico Pena, who headed the transportation and energy departments under Clinton, became a co-chair of Obama's campaign last September. New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, who was U.N. ambassador and energy secretary under Clinton, endorsed former rival Obama in March despite heavy wooing by the former president, who watched the Super Bowl with him in New Mexico.
Meanwhile, Nunn and Boren said they have accepted Obama's invitation to serve as advisers to his National Security Foreign Policy Team.
Nunn served as chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee from 1987-95, while Boren is the longest-serving chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.
Both fall into the moderate-conservative end of the Democratic party's ideological spectrum and both gave Bill Clinton trouble during his presidency, trying to tug him to the right on issues while most congressional Democrats were leaning to the left.
In a statement issued by the Obama campaign, Nunn said: "We need a president who has the temperament of a leader -- a sharp, incisive, strategic mind, a rare capacity for self criticism, and a willingness to hear contrary points of view. Based on my conversations with Senator Obama, reading his book and his speeches and seeing the kind of campaign he has run, I believe that he is our best choice to lead our nation."
Boren said: "Our most urgent task is to end the divisions in our country, to stop the political bickering, and to unite our talents and efforts. Americans of all persuasions are pleading with our political leaders to bring us together. I believe Senator Obama is sincerely committed to that effort. He has made a non-partisan approach to all issues a top priority."
Obama said he was honored to have the senators' support.
