Poet Angelou stars in Clinton ad

Hillary Clinton's campaign apparently believes that poet Maya Angelou can help her make inroads among African Americans and the liberal intelligentsia -- two groups dominated by rival Barack Obama.

Clinton's camp released an open letter from Angelou last week. Now, she's featured in a 60-second TV ad the campaign announced today will air in North Carolina, which votes on May 6.

In the spot, Angelou, sharing the stage with Clinton, praises the New York senator as a collage of photos of Clinton talking to voters, children, and the elderly appear on screen.

"Hillary Clinton is a prayer of every American who really longs for fair play," says Angelou, a professor at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N.C., who read a poem at Bill Clinton's inauguration in 1993. "Working men and women have had their jobs snatched from underneath them, their homes snatched away from them. And what we need, I think, is a person, a President who can make a difference in our country. She intends to help our country become what it can become. She dares to say human beings are more alike than we are unalike."