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This is going to be a tough, tough race, but I feel that he's the man for the job," said former Los Angeles Lakers star Earvin "Magic" Johnson of Democratic Presidential nominee Barack Obama.
The one time supporter of Hillary Clinton says he is fully on board with the Illinois senator now that Sen. Clinton's race has officially been suspended. The NBA vet also says there's no time for angry Hillary fans to vote for Republican nominee John McCain out of spite.
"If we go with McCain, we'll only get the same thing that we got, and right now that's not good," said Magic, who appeared with Spike Lee at a press event to promote their new PSAs aimed at boosting AIDS awareness.
"We have to now make sure that we all rally behind [Obama], even myself, who was a Clinton supporter," Magic continued. "That's over with now. When she lost, that was over. I jumped right on [Obama's] bandwagon, I called him [and said], 'Hey, I'm a foot soldier. What you need me to do? I'm ready to go to work.'"
But why Hillary over Obama in the first place, asked EUR's Lee Bailey.
"The Clintons did more to empower African Americans and Latinos than anybody else when it wasn't fashionable to do it," Magic said. "So I've been supporting both of them a long time. I asked her to run a long time ago. So you don?t ask someone to run and then not support them. I'm happy that she ran, she ran a good race, but sometimes you end up short in the Finals."
Spike Lee, an avid supporter of Obama, chimed in: "I want to commend Magic, because no one has ever said that every single African American has to endorse Obama. But it's a testament to Magic that he never bad-mouthed the man. There were a whole lot of people ? I'm not gonna say no names ? they were saying a lot of things about brotherman that I thought were uncalled for."
Lee said the significance of Obama's nomination has yet to fully sink in.
"I think we still haven't truly understood the historic nature of what happened the other day," he said. "I'm a little older than Magic, but growing up my idols were Joe Namath, Willie Mays and Walt Frazier. As kids of color, so often our idols have always been actors and entertainers. No one is going to know the significance it's going to have on young black boys having a black man as a President of the United States of America, having a black man in the most powerful office in the world. It changes everything."
Magic said he's anxious to get on to the 10 proposed town hall showdowns between Obama and McCain: "I can't wait for the debates, because I'm telling you right now, I've seen [Obama] live. Nobody better. Nobody better.
Spike interrupted: "Oooh, he's gonna tear McCain up."
