Swampland - TIME.com

Maria Shriver for Obama!!!

In a shocker surprise endorsement, Maria Shriver -- First Lady of California and Ahh-nold's wife, just showed up at the Michelle Obama, Oprah, Caroline Kennedy rally in Los Angeles.

She's taking the stage now, more to come.

Update:
Now that I've finally made it to LAX...

Shriver, wearing a suede brown western-style jacket, explained her casual outfit, saying she woke up this morning intending to go to her daughter's horse show.

"I'm standing here because I want to be here," Shriver told the 9,000-person crowd. "I wasn't on the schedule. And I thought to myself when I woke up this morning, I thought to myself there's no place I'd like to be but here today... You know, the more I thought about it, I thought if Barack Obama was a state he'd be California. Think about it: diverse, independent, smart, bucks tradition..." Shriver said as the crowd chanted "Yes!" to each quality.

Interestingly Shriver announced her "support" for Obama, but never used the word "endorse," though Obama staff aftereard said her appearance and speech qualified as an endorsement. As my colleague Mark Halperin points out, she still has not made a decision about whether she will campaign for Obama.

Of course, Shriver is a Kennedy although she's married to the Republican governator of California. Walking out of the event Diane and Jonathan Kert, both retired state workers from Long Beach, mused about what this might make for dinner conversation in Sacramento tonight (Schwarzenegger has endorsed McCain). "I'm absolutely floored that the wife of a Republican governor in this state would be supporting a Democrat for president," said Jonathan, 61. "She took a risk that's almost historic."

"Yes dear, but she was on the stage with her cousin," Diane, 62, replied. "She is, after all a Democrat."

It remains to be seen how this could affect the vote in California. But in a state where Hillary has reached out almost exclusively to women Shriver's support -- and today's rally as a whole -- can't be great for Hillary.


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About Swampland

Joe Klein

Joe Klein is TIME's political columnist and author of six books, most recently Politics Lost. His weekly TIME column, "In the Arena," covers national and international affairs. In 2004 he won the National Headliner Award for best magazine column. Read more

Karen Tumulty

Senior Writer Karen Tumulty has been TIME's National Political Correspondent since 2001, and has also covered the White House and Congress for the magazine. A native of San Antonio, she is a graduate of the University of Texas at Austin and Harvard Business School, where her career choice has significantly lowered the average salary of her graduating class. But she gets lots of free magazines. Read more

Jay Newton-Small

Jay Newton-Small Jay Newton-Small covers politics for TIME. She has covered the Bush 43 White House and also Congress from the DeLay era to the present. And, yes, despite the misleading name SHE is a she. Read more

Michael Scherer

Michael Scherer is a correspondent in TIME's Washington bureau covering the 2008 presidential campaign. He has worked national assignments for Mother Jones magazine and Salon.com. Read more

Amy Sullivan

Amy Sullivan is a senior editor at TIME magazine, and author of the book The Party Faithful: How and Why Democrats are Closing the God Gap (Scribner, 2008). A Michigan native, she holds degrees from the University of Michigan and Harvard Divinity School. She writes about religion and politics for TIME, but no longer answers to the name "Bible Girl." Read more

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