Patrick endorses Obama before crowd of 9,500

A crowd of 9,500 cheered on as Gov. Deval Patrick publicly endorsed Barack Obama on Boston Common Tuesday.


(AP Photo/Steven Senne)

Patrick said of Obama in his introduction:

For once, I want a campaign that’s not about the candidate, but about us.

Not about a resumé, but about character. Not about connections or convenience, but about conviction. Not about smearing the competition, but about lifting us all up. Not about the right and the left, but about right and wrong. Not about yesterday, but about tomorrow.

I don’t care whether the next president has experience in the White House. I care whether he understands life in your house.

I don’t care whether the next president has already met foreign heads of state. I care whether he knows something about how people live and think in distant cities and villages and can remember that our actions affect them, too.

I don’t care whether the next president is the first black president or the first woman president or the first whatever, to tell you the truth. I care that the next president has moral courage, a political backbone, the humility to admit what he doesn’t know, and the wisdom to learn from others.

In Iowa, the Obama campaign sent out mailers contrasting his position on Iran with that of Hillary Clinton.