Actor Robert De Niro made a special appearance this morning at a rally for Barack Obama at New Jersey's Meadowlands. The film legend, whose portrayals of Italian-Americans have given this nation a better understanding of the family-minded mobsters who live among us, offered his endorsement of the Illinois senator and a pointed rebuke to those who claim that Obama lacked the necessary experience to serve in the nation's highest office.

"Barack Obama doesn't have the experience to run for president of the United States, and I can prove it" De Niro told the crowd. "He did not have the foresight to vote for the Iraq War. You know: that's the kind of inexperience I can get used to. That's the kind of inexperience our country deserves. If this contest were to be decided strictly on the basis of experience, Dick Cheney would be our next president. I would prefer Barack Obama's type of experience."

De Niro further illustrated his point about the drawbacks of experience by noting that even though he is widely considered one of the greatest screen actors of all time and has won two Academy Awards, he still chose to appear in Backdraft, The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle and both Analyze This and its sequel, Analyze That. He did not mention those idiot Meet the... movies he made with Ben Stiller, but some things are too painful to remember for even our strongest icons.