Barack Obama picked up an endorsement Tuesday from filmmaker Ken Burns, who said he was disappointed in what he called the negative tone of Hillary Rodham Clinton's campaign.

Burns, a Walpole, N.H., resident, said the back-and-forth between Obama and Clinton shows the country needs "a leader who calls upon on each and every one of us to heed the better angels of our nature and not — and not — our basest fears."

"At a time when our politics has descended into cynical slash-and-burn character attacks, Barack Obama has steadfastly presented a positive, unironic agenda for this country," Burns said in a conference call with reporters.

"He is criticizing Hillary Clinton for being negative and a kind of Washington politics as usual, which is a direct attack on her and her character. And in the same mailer in which he is making that attack, he is then putting forward misleading information about a policy and plan and not being straight with people," said state Sen. Maggie Hassan, a Clinton supporter. "It's not supposed to be the kind of campaign he says he's leading."

Filmmaker Ken Burns Endorses Obama
By PHILIP ELLIOTT, Associated Press Writer Tuesday, December 18, 2007
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2007/12/18/politics/p141607S11.DTL&feed=rss.news

Barack Obama picked up an endorsement Tuesday from filmmaker Ken Burns, who said he was disappointed in what he called the negative tone of Hillary Rodham Clinton’s campaign.

‘‘At a time when our politics has descended into cynical slash-and-burn character attacks, Barack Obama has steadfastly presented a positive, unironic agenda for this country,’’ Burns said in a conference call with reporters.

Ken Burns endorses Obama
December 18, 2007 FROM ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.suntimes.com/news/politics/obama/702626,burns121807.article