Former Virginia Governor Douglas Wilder Backs Obama

[JI7]

Douglas Wilder, the nation's first elected black governor, is endorsing Democrat Barack Obama's bid to become the nation's first black president.

Wilder, Virginia's governor from 1990 to 1994 and now Richmond's mayor, praised Obama Friday as "a leader who can move beyond the parochialisms of the past." Wilder wrote in a statement that he is "tremendously impressed" with the U.S. Senator from Illinois.

The 76-year-old Wilder had praised Obama in several news interviews in recent months, but withheld his formal endorsement until one day after Obama's convincing victory in Iowa's Democratic caucuses.

Wilder said in the statement, "Our country is in desperate need of a new direction, new ideas, and new solutions to resolve the circumstances that the U.S. has shouldered in recent years."

Virginia's current governor, Tim Kaine, endorsed Obama last year and recently campaigned for him in Iowa and South Carolina.

http://www.wjla.com/news/stories/0108/485280.html