If not, it doesn't really help Obama. Smart move for Byrd though; a great way to clear his name after all these years.

FYI; WV already voted.

Yes Senator Byrd is a super delegate. He is also a super Democrat because unlike Hilllary and like Obama, he had the courage and judgment to oppose the Iraq war from the beginning.

Read or listen to the speech Senator Byrd gave on the eve of the IWR it should be apparent why he could not endorse Clinton. It is the same reason I could not support her.

I do not think that Byrd's endorsement 'clears his name' or any such thing.  Any blot on his character has been effectively erased by his decades of service to all the citizens of this country and by his candid address of his past in recent years.  The historic symbolism of this endorsement does not have to do with him as an individual.  Rather it's symbolic because it's about more than him, it shows how far we've come as a society.  If a former Klan activist from a border state can dedicate himself to fighting poverty and racism and then embrace the candidacy of a black man with Arabic and African names, then we can have a realistic hope of reaching the goal of consigning racism to the dustbin of American history.

A Byrd Endorsement for Obama will help Obama improve his standing among Hardworking White Voters.

Well, it's a great endorsement, but it brings to mind an Adam Sandler quote from The Wedding Singer:

"Once again, things that could've been brought to my attention YESTERDAY!"

Ben Smith at Politico pulled a wonderful quote out of Audacity of Hope about Byrd:

Listening to Senator Byrd I felt with full force all the essential contradictions of me in this new place, with its marble busts, its arcane traditions, its memories and its ghosts. I pondered the fact that, according to his own autobiography, Senator Byrd had received his first taste of leadership in his early twenties, as a member of the Raleigh County Ku Klux Klan, an association that he had long disavowed, an error he attributed--no doubt correctly--to the time and place in which he'd been raised, but which continued to surface as an issue throughout his career. I thought about how he had joined other giants of the Senate, like J. William Fulbright of Arkansas and Richard Russell of Georgia, in Southern resistance to civil rights legislation. I wondered if this would matter to the liberals who now lionized Senator Byrd for his principled opposition to the Iraq War resolution--the MoveOn.org crowd, the heirs of the political counterculture the senator had spent much of his career disdaining.

I wondered if it should matter. Senator Byrd's life--like most of ours--has been the struggle of warring impulses, a twining of darkness and light. And in that sense I realized that he really was a proper emblem for the Senate, whose rules and design reflect the grand compromise of America's founding: the bargain between Northern states and Southern states, the Senate's role as a guardian against the passions of the moment, a defender of minority rights and state sovereignty, but also a tool to protect the wealthy from the rabble, and assure slaveholders of noninterference with their peculiar institution. Stamped into the very fiber of the Senate, within its genetic code, was the same contest between power and principle that characterized America as a whole, a lasting expression of that great debate among a few brilliant, flawed men that had concluded with the creation of a form of government unique in its genius--yet blind to the whip and the chain.

I was so delighted to read of Byrd's endorsement and not just because of his strong opposition to the IWR (and beautiful, powerful speech opposing it).

It's also historic because it speaks to the possibility of human growth and change.  Senator Byrd recounts in his autobiography that he began his political career out of his leadership position in the KKK.  He opposed the integration of the military and filibustered civil rights legislation.

And now, today, he's endorsing the man who will be, in all likelyhood, the first African American nominee for President.

Even if he weren't a super delegate his endorsement would mean a lot.

I know that the love of the Constitution you share with Barack Obamam prompted this.

As a 60 year old black woman - this is even more meaningful to me than it may be to other folks here.

We are all capable of change.

This is a very nice endorsement. :)

I hope he is well enough and willing to campaign for Obama in the GE.  Perhaps if the people of WV get to know Obama better through not just Obama, but surrogates such as Byrd, they'll be more inclined to vote for him.  He could also be used quite effectively in other rural states.

Good for Obama.

A real nice get.

In Nine Years When Senator Robert C. Byrd turns 100. Which Senator will be giving a toast to Robert C. Byrd. In 2008 when Robert C. Byrd endorsed Barack Obama for President, We supported him and rightfully so. Had rest of the country followed our lead. We would not be having all these problems like we are having right now.