Rocker Bruce Springsteen has endorsed Barack Obama for president.
“At the moment, critics have tried to diminish Senator Obama through the exaggeration of certain of his comments and relationships,” said the New Jersey native, in a statement posted on his Web site Wednesday. “While these matters are worthy of some discussion, they have been ripped out of the context and fabric of the man's life and vision… Over here on E Street, we're proud to support Obama for President.”
In February, Springsteen had resisted making a choice between Obama and Hillary Clinton, telling USA Today that "there are two really good Democratic candidates for president. I admire and respect them both enough to wait and see what happens."
But he praised Obama, who cited Springsteen as the person he would most like to meet in an interview with People magazine.
"I always look at my work as trying to measure the distance between American promise and American reality," he told the paper. "And I think (Obama's) inspired a lot of people with that idea: How do you make that distance shorter? …”
