Hugh Carey Endorses Obama

Hugh Carey, a pro-life Catholic who served as Governor of New York, beloved by many Catholics for his advocacy for the disabled, his opposition to the death penalty and his key role in promoting peace in Northern Ireland, has endorsed Barack Obama.

Carey Likes Clinton, Too, but Backs Obama

By SAM ROBERTS

Hugh L. Carey, the former two-term governor of New York who was instrumental in rescuing the city and state from insolvency in the 1970s, has endorsed Senator Barack Obama for the Democratic presidential nomination.

“Either choice would be a measurable improvement over where we are,” Mr. Carey said in an interview on Friday, “but I have a preference based on the measures I make: a basic capacity to deal with crisis and to think globally for our security, the fact that he has talked of coalition and reaching across the aisle, and the way he has conducted his campaign.”

“It’s my opinion the way you conduct a campaign is some indication of how you might govern,” added Mr. Carey, who was also a congressman from Brooklyn. “It’s also important that we talk to our enemies as well as our friends.”

In rejecting, in effect, his home state senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, Mr. Carey said: “My ties to the Clintons are, I hope, stronger than ever. But when my country’s security and future are at stake, I’m determined to make a personal judgment. I think she is professional enough and competent enough to know well that some members of my family are very close to her, and mine is an individual assessment.”

“This is a Democratic year,” he said. “Win or lose, we still have Mrs. Clinton as our senator, and there could be another day for her.”

Mrs. Clinton has been endorsed by the vast majority of Democratic elected officials in New York and won the state’s presidential primary Feb. 5 with about 57 percent of the vote.

The official results have not yet been certified, but the final count appears unlikely to materially affect the number of delegates awarded by Congressional districts on the basis of the primary vote: 139 for Mrs. Clinton and 93 for Mr. Obama.

New York will also send 49 superdelegates to the national convention, mostly present and former party and elected officials. Mr. Carey is not one of them.

Mr. Carey, who will be 89 next month, said he was heartened by the “enormous participation” in the primaries that Mr. Obama’s candidacy had spurred and was not at all concerned by critics who say he lacks experience.

“I had more military experience than political experience when I first ran,” said Mr. Carey, who was an Army major before getting his law degree and being elected to Congress in 1960.