Obama’s Surprise Endorser: First Lady Maria Shriver

LOS ANGELES — California first lady Maria Shriver said she arose Sunday feeling inspired by an Eleanor Roosevelt quote: "Do something every day that scares you."

"Eleanor Roosevelt," Shriver said, "This is my one thing for today." With that, Shriver, who wasn’t even on the program, made a surprise appearance at the close of a raucous UCLA rally for Barack Obama and endorsed the Illinois senator for president in Tuesday’s presidential primary.

With both Democratic and Republican candidates dispersed across the country Sunday to rally supporters in some of the 24 states that will hold nominating contests Tuesday, in California, Democratic surrogates took center stage.

Former President Clinton toured African American churches in Los Angeles on behalf of his wife, New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Shriver’s cousin, Caroline Kennedy, daughter of the late President John F. Kennedy, earlier had addressed thousands of people at an Obama rally at UCLA’s Pauley Pavilion that also featured impassioned speeches by Oprah Winfrey, the senator’s wife, Michelle Obama, and singer Stevie Wonder.

Then Michelle Obama said there was one more guest. And three days after her husband, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, endorsed John McCain in the state’s Republican primary, the first lady bounded onto the stage and declared she was standing with Obama.

"I thought if Barack Obama would be a state, he’d be California: "Diverse, open, smart, independent, bucks tradition, inspiring, dream, leader."

Shriver said she wasn’t sure Sunday morning if she had the courage to make a stand in the presidential race. But she said she decided to appear at UCLA after a conversation with her oldest daughter, Katherine. She said Katherine told her: "Mommy, if you think it can help, if you think it can make a difference, then go."

She called Obama a unifying figure. "He’s not about himself. He is about us. … He is about the power of what we can do when we come together."

The first lady’s appearance at UCLA came hours after Bill Clinton came to Los Angeles-area African American churches Sunday on a mission of hope, history and conciliation.

Only recently, the campaigner-in-chief for Hillary Clinton had derided Obama’s assertions about his position on the Iraq war as "a fairy tale." He had sharply criticized him before the South Carolina primary and downplayed the significance of Obama’s win.

But Sunday before the Brookins Community AME Church in South Los Angeles, Clinton told of his grandfather who operated a market in an African American neighborhood and gave store credit to those who needed a hand.

"All my life I’ve been waiting to vote for an African American president," he said in one of four stops to Los Angeles area churches to help rally support for his wife among a constituency that has long supported the Clintons but is now having doubts.

Next he told about his mother, who struggled to raise him after his father died in a car accident when she was pregnant. "All my life I’ve been waiting to vote for a woman president," he said.

Then, referring to the historic quest of both Democratic candidates, he added: "So God is saying to me, ‘OK, you got what you asked for.’ "

Clinton, who didn’t mention Obama by name, called Tuesday "a great election day — at least for those of us who are Democrats." And he said it is time for unity among Democrats, no matter the outcome. "We’ve got to find a way to choose without division," Clinton said.

Later, stirring the UCLA crowd, Winfrey echoed a similar theme.

"We have two candidates, a black and a woman," Winfrey said. "What that says to me is that we have won the struggle. This election itself is a victory for women’s rights and civil rights. And now we are free. … We are free. We are free of the restrictions of gender and race. And for the first time, we can just vote for what we believe."

Then Winfrey noted that an acquaintance had called her "a traitor to your gender" for failing to back Hillary Clinton. She added: "I am not a traitor. I am just following my truth and that truth has led me to Barack Obama."

Bill Clinton, who will campaign for his wife today in Sacramento and Stockton, portrayed his wife as a leader "who best understands these times."

He said she can address the challenges of America because she has the ability to "turn her good intentions into positive change in other people’s lives." But he said: "We respect the choices people make in this election. And if it can’t be for her, we honor that. But for goodness’ sake, make your voice heard."

That wasn’t good enough for Dorothy Washington, a parishioner at Brookins Community AME. The senior citizen, who described herself as a fourth-generation descendant of African slaves, listened to Clinton’s speech and afterward said sternly: "I didn’t hear him."

"What is done is done," she said. "What is done to my people is still being done." Washington said she was angry at Clinton’s questioning Obama’s experience in South Carolina, where he compared Obama’s win to 1984 and 1988 South Carolina caucus victories by the Rev. Jesse Jackson, an African American candidate who wasn’t considered a contender for the Democratic nomination.

But Clinton’s words were uplifting to Joyce Hamen-Intog, 48, who said the former president "was speaking the truth from his heart. He said you choose from your heart. He didn’t criticize. He prayed for a woman. And he prayed for a black man."

At UCLA, Caroline Kennedy called Obama a generational figure "who inspires me the way people say my father inspired them. "It’s rare to have a candidate who can help us believe in ourselves and tie that belief to the highest ideals," said Kennedy, who said Obama stands for "the future of our party and the future of our country."

Michelle Obama declared that her husband is a needed antidote to a troubled nation torn by war and struggles for opportunity. "Before we can fix our problems, we have to fix our souls," she said. "Our souls are broken in this nation. We have lost our way. And it begins with leadership. It begins with inspiration."

And then Shriver appeared to say she was one of those who were inspired.

"This is a moment, a moment to have a conversation with yourself, she said. "Ask yourself: What kind of America do I believe in?" She looked about the cheering UCLA crowd and said, "I stand here today because I’m proud to stand here." Then she told the Obama followers to go vote. "I ask you to go out and follow your heart," Shriver said. "And remember: So goes California, so goes the nation."