Endorsements

Is this too little too late?

A few hours from now I will step on stage in Detroit, Michigan to announce my support for Senator Barack Obama. From now through Election Day, I intend to do whatever I can to make sure he is elected President of the United States.

Over the next four years, we are going to face many difficult challenges -- including bringing our troops home from Iraq, fixing our economy, and solving the climate crisis. Barack Obama is clearly the candidate best able to solve these problems and bring change to America.

This moment and this election are too important to let pass without taking action.

The endorsement will be streamed live tonight at 8:30 p.m. EDT at a rally at Joe Louis Arena in downtown Detroit, Michigan. Just go to http://www.BarackObama.com and they'll have a link to the streaming page.

It is the place where John Edwards also announced his endorsement. Am wondering if, due to the demographics of the state the Obama camopaign is putting their eggs in the Michigan basket and leave Florida up for a tossing win.

I am not sure if that is a rogue or dangerous strategy, given Florida's history of stolen elections.

The News Hour with Jim Lehrer twitter alerts are a must for anybody who wants to have the immediate scoop on what's happening with the elections. They just dropped this number : 27 superdelegagtes in one day.

Baratunde rounded up that nugget by twittering that Obama needs only 10 more delegates to reach the "magic number" of 2,118 delegates.

Town Hall is saying that John McCain is calling it for Obama by effectively scheduling a speech tonight. I think Red State beat McCain to it by first, real "Obama is a radical" kind of post.

By the way : I hear, but have not confirmed, that Hillary Clinton only picked up one superdelegate today.

John Edwards told us 7 months ago why he would never endorse Hillary Clinton. I had forgotten about this rebuke until I found it looking for a clip of last night's endorsement.

It shows Edwards at the top of his litigation game --brutal yet never a moment emotional lost in the violence of his words. I've watched this now several times and I have to say, it is one of the most breath taking moments in political history.

It is without a doubt what cross many people's minds when the rumor about him getting an Attorney General nod in the Obama administration was floated earlier this year. Rumor or not, I have to say, chalk me in for making it a reality. John Edwards for United States Attorney General would wipe away the tortureful memories of John Ashcroft and Alberto Gonzales' tenures as USAGs.

6:42pm

IT'S ON NOW!

6:02 pm

John Edwards is right now with Obama in Grand Rapids Michigan. I'll be liveblogging the endorsement through TWITTER.

Follow me there!

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At 7pm CNN will have the scoop!

What a day for endorsements!

This has made my friggin' day :

NARAL Pro-Choice America PAC Endorses Senator Barack Obama for President

Washington, D.C. – NARAL Pro-Choice America, the political leader of the pro-choice movement with more than one million member activists in all 50 states, today announced that its political action committee is endorsing Sen. Barack Obama for president.

"There are few more tireless defenders of women's rights in this country than NARAL Pro-Choice America and I'm proud to accept their support," Sen. Obama said. "For decades, they have worked in the courthouse, in the legislature, and in the streets to make sure that women have the right to choose. This is a fundamental civil right that I've fought to protect in Illinois and in Washington, that's being threatened by Senator McCain, and that I'll be fighting in the months ahead to make secure today, tomorrow, and always."

Nancy Keenan, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America, praised both Sen. Obama and Sen. Hillary Clinton for their leadership in standing up for women's reproductive rights throughout this campaign, but only one of these dynamic candidates can advance to the general election.

OMG, Guille, that beard makes you look HAWT!

In other news, Mark Penn says the endorsement is insignificant. Unbelievable.

Michelle Obama, Caroline Kennedy, Maria Shriver,Oprah Winfrey by LATimes

In a jaw-dropping last-minute endorsement, Maria Schriver endorses Barack Obama : Breaking News: Maria Shriver endorses Barack Obama.

Will.I.Am's endorsement of Barack Obama goes viral : Will.I.Am's remix of Barack Obama's "Yes We Can" speech.

La Opinion, the largest Spanish language newspaper in California (if not continental US) endorses Barack Obama. The tipping point? Immigration : The Democratic choice is Barack Obama y en español, La opción demócrata es Barack Obama.

In what looks like a direct response to Marcia Pappas' "Ultimate Betrayal" memo, 150+ Feminist women from New York State decide to endorse Barack Obama : New York Feminists for Peace and Barack Obama.

Susan Eisenhower, the granddaughter of Republican President Dwight Eisenhower and coiner of the phrase "military-industrial complex", comes out in support for Barack Obama : Why I'm Backing Obama

Kate Michelman, the former president of NARAL, just posted one heck of a classy endorsement to Barack Obama over at Huffington Post :

Senator Obama is not just prepared to lead as our beloved Teddy and Caroline Kennedy have said, he is prepared to lead in a way different than we have seen for decades. Not out in front with us behind him, but rather with us beside him.

And that difference is all the difference. That difference separates just any president from a great president; and right now, we need a great president.

Barack Obama will be that great president. He will bring us all together. And together, we will change our country.

During these past many years, we have lost the sense of what we could do together, who we could be, what was possible.

That's changing.

And Barack Obama is the one changing that.

With him, greatness is again within reach.

Now compare that to Glorian Steinem or even worse, to Marcia Pappas.

On a related note, Nez calls the energy and zeitgeist coming from the Obama camp 'sway'.

I started writing "Una Carta Abierta a Barack Obama" about a week ago. It was at the same time I wrote my love letter to John Edwards and my pointed rant to the junior Senator of New York about Billary. Yet I had a heck of a lot of trouble putting my words down.

First, it was my ambivalence between writing in English and Spanish. Whenever I started in English, I'd have to stop. Words failed me in my adopted language, like they always do when I am working through a profound realization.

What was most interesting is that words in prose failed me.

My area of expertise in Latin American Studies is not only history but aesthetics. More exactly, neobaroque aesthetics in contemporary Latin American poetry. I know it's a mouthful, but I have a reason to invoke them : poetic language is considered not just revolutionary, but mind altering and conscious raising. Poetic language for the likes of a Jose Lezama Lima, Severo Sarduy or David Huerta, is a tool for altering consciousness, for exploring the multiplicity inherent in identity and for exposing the duplicity in "what you see is what you get".

Por el amor al país,

Por el amor a nuestra gente,

Por el amor a la patria,

Por el amor al presente,

Por el amor al futuro,

Por el amor a la esperanza,

Ésta es una carta urgente

que te pide,

te llama,

te reclama

Por el amor de tu madre,

Dále tu endoso y respaldo

A BARACK OBAMA.

Siempre,
Liza Sabater