IN OTHER ENDORSEMENT NEWS Toni Morrison, who, inadvertently I hope, launched what would become the long-lasting "Bill Clinton is the first black president" ridiculousness, has thrown her hat into the endorsement ring by sending a rather poetic letter of support to Obama's camp.
"In addition to keen intelligence, integrity and a rare authenticity, you exhibit something that has nothing to do with age, experience, race or gender and something I don't see in other candidates," Morrison wrote. "That something is a creative imagination which coupled with brilliance equals wisdom. It is too bad if we associate it only with gray hair and old age. Or if we call searing vision naivete. Or if we believe cunning is insight. Or if we settle for finessing cures tailored for each ravaged tree in the forest while ignoring the poisonous landscape that feeds and surrounds it.

"Wisdom is a gift; you can't train for it, inherit it, learn it in a class, or earn it in the workplace — that access can foster the acquisition of knowledge, but not wisdom," Morrison wrote.

Barack Obama wins South Carolina! Oh, we all already knew that would happen. But we didn't know he would trounce the competition with 55 percent of the vote. Hillary Clinton got 27 percent, and John Edwards rounded out the bottom with 18 percent.

The Clintons sought to downplay their opponent's victory as they moved on to campaign in Tennessee. I've largely ignored and/or minimized the racial controversy surrounding the Clintons because — although I think they definitely need to watch their language — I never honestly felt that they were trying to use race to minimize Obama. But this comment from Bill Clinton really disappointed me:

"Jesse Jackson won South Carolina in '84 and '88," Clinton said at a rally in Columbia. "Jackson ran a good campaign. And Obama ran a good campaign here."

Those black South Carolinians are willing to vote for any old (or young) black guy, aren't they? Thanks for helping us draw the connection, Mr. President.

Check out part two of Obama's victory speech after the jump.

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• Has BET blocked two episodes of The Boondocks that blast the much-criticized network's programming and executives? [HHDX]

• The city of Compton wants to ban Suge Knight. [AHH]

• Tracey Edmonds bounces back quickly. [SP]

• This guy has been slapped with federal charges for driving around near Jena with two nooses hanging from the back of his (of course) pick up truck. [CNN]

• How well did blacks really fare under Bill Clinton? [Slate]

At an MLK Day service at Harlem's Convent Avenue Baptist Church, where he was, of course, making an appearance in honor of his wife. He probably should have had a cup of coffee or something beforehand, because the old guy was sort of asleep the whole time. My favorite is when he wakes up nodding wisely at the sermon, as if he had any clue what was going on. [NYP]

Rep. James Clyburn (D-SC), the highest-ranking African American in Congress, has previously promised to stay out of the race for the Democratic nomination. But some foot-in-mouth comments from Hillary Clinton and Bill Clinton — have the influential South Carolina politician rethinking his stance.

“We have to be very, very careful about how we speak about that era in American politics,” said Mr. Clyburn, who was shaped by his searing experiences as a youth in the segregated South and his own activism in those days. “It is one thing to run a campaign and be respectful of everyone’s motives and actions, and it is something else to denigrate those. That bothered me a great deal.”

Clyburn's referring to this:

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• How could anyone question the "blackness" of Barack Obama when he's a member of a church (okay, he's separated himself from it since he began his campaign) that lets Common spit holy freestyles? [XXL]

• Donna Brazile's accused of being honest about how something made her feel playing the race card after she called some of Bill Clinton's Barack Obama comments "depressing." [Politico]

• Stedman's not getting any monetary rewards for sticking by Oprah Winfrey all that time. [MSNBC]

• Genarlow Wilson, who was college-bound before he was jailed for statutory rape after having oral sex with another student at his high school. Now that he's out of jail, he's headed to Morehouse. [AJC]

• Oh really, Tyson? [FWD]

Barack Obama on whether or not he smoked marijuana and inhaled:

"I did," the senator from Illinois said to light applause. "It's not something I'm proud of. It was a mistake as a young man."

The question was a reference to a line made famous by former President Bill Clinton who, while admitting to trying marijuana, said he did not inhale.

"I never understood that line," Obama continued. "The point was to inhale. That was the point."

Later, Mitt Romney criticized Obama for what he basically described as an irresponsible answer. I suppose the better choice is to pass on the question, which is an admission of guilt, or to lie like Bill Clinton, which obviously went over quite well, considering we're still making fun of his denial of inhalation today.

Meanwhile, Oprah hits the campaign trail!

• Do you know what happens to your electronics after you recycle them?

• The world just gets hotter and hotter — not in the Paris Hilton sense of the word.

• Bill Clinton warns Americans that obesity will cause our nation's collapse.

• But a little extra meat on the bones never hurt anyone.

• Blacks and Hispanics live longer after being diagnosed with Alzheimer's than whites. For once.

According to an unscientific study in the New York Post, Hillary Clinton owns Harlem. Especially Harlem women.

More than half of the 96 people questioned by a Post reporter in Harlem this week said they would vote for Clinton, with most preferring her experience as senator and first lady over relative neophyte Obama…

Fifty-seven percent chose Clinton; 19 percent favored Obama.

Clinton was not surprisingly a favorite among females, with 75 percent in her corner.

Most men found the anti-war Obama to be a fresh face.

"A lot of black voters have a problem with the war. And also, Obama is a mentor to us," said George Danquah, 28.

Bill Clinton, a Harlem favorite who actually has his offices there, and the fact that Hillary is a New York senator has probably made her victory in NYC a foregone conclusion from the beginning. But forget politics, I'm wondering if the people in Harlem acted shockingly civilized during their interviews.

[NYP]

Bill Clinton took a not-so-subtle dig at Barack Obama recently, when he compared the level of experience the Illinois senator has today with the level of experience Bill had in 1988 — when he decided not to run for president.

“I was, in terms of experience, was closer to Senator Obama, I suppose, in 1988 when I came within a day of announcing,” Mr. Clinton said in a interview on “Political Capital with Al Hunt” that was scheduled to be broadcast tonight on Bloomberg television and again this weekend.

Mr. Clinton did not run that year, he added, because “I really didn’t think I knew enough, and had served enough and done enough to run.”

The former president quickly noted that he did not mean Mr. Obama should not be pursuing the nomination. But he said that compared to Mr. Obama, who went from the Illinois Legislature to the United States Senate in 2005, Mr. Clinton had far more experience when he finally did run in 1992, as governor of Arkansas for nearly 12 years and as a leader of national policy initiatives.

If only B.O. had a beloved ex-president stumping for him on a daily basis. Michelle is great and all, but she's no Bill Clinton.

[NYT]

• Is that really you, Percy Miller? [Politico]

• Ten years later, Biggie's murder case gets a shaken up, but is still no closer to being solved. [MTV]

• How we've missed you, Q-Tip. [BS]

• Don't worry, says Bill Clinton, we've got black voters in the bag. [USNWR]

• It's certainly true in South Carolina. [LAT]

Mariah Carey looks amazing when she is fully clothed in an outfit that fits her and not making mysterious appearances at ceremonies for jury duty commemorative stamps. She was honored at last night's VH1 Save The Music 10th Anniversary Gala and chose her look accordingly. After hearing Mariah was going to do the full-coverage thing, Mya might have felt like she needed to bring some skin to the classy affair. Check out the possible Broadway star and other attendees, including one saxaphone-playing former president, below.

Only in reference to a sex scandal would Bill Clinton and Shaquille O'Neal be mentioned together in the same post. And what do you know! There is a sex scandal, albeit a minor and completely impossible to prove one.

According to Page Six, the accused madame made mention of the political and basketball legends during a conversation taped by police and subsequently leaked to the media.

"These are not your average girls. Some of them have worked with Bill Clinton," Brooks told an undercover officer while assuring him of her girls' cleanliness, according to the Vegas police report. The Post's Marianne Garvey also reports Brooks boasted to cops that she had 40 women working for her.

A spokesman for Clinton said, "Apparently, total fabrications that get made up in Vegas don't stay in Vegas." O'Neal's reps failed to get back to Page Six for two days.

Well, they certainly seem unfazed by the news. In comparison to an impeachment scandal and getting written up in Karrine Steffan's book, this is nothing.

[NYP]

If Barack Obama wins in 2008, are we going to see Michelle Obama replicate Hillary Clinton's rise from First Lady to political star? She would probably say no if asked, but I'm not so sure. She was Barack's superior when they were working at the same law firm. In the marriage, she is probably still the boss.

According to the Washington Post, Michelle Obama, who just quit her job as an executive at University of Chicago Hospitals, is comfortable in her own skin, but fits the Laura Bush First Lady mold about as well as Hillary Clinton did more than a decade ago. That is to say, she doesn't fit it at all.

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The National Action Network convention was dubbed the "Sharpton Primary," because every presidential candidate and their mama showed up and gave speeches pandering to Sharpton and crew (read: "black leaders"). I'm sure you can guess that the most popular speaker was the black guy. Unfortunately for Sen. Barack Obama, the black guy in this equation was Bill Clinton. His wife, Sen. Hillary Clinton, also racked up more standing ovations than Obama during her speech. That's gotta hurt.

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