WHY I CHANGED MY MIND AND DECIDED TO VOTE FOR OBAMA

Governor Bill Richardson (D-NM) and Rapper 50 Cent endorsed Hillary Clinton over the weekend (on Fox) but pretty much everyone else endorsed Obama-- especially here in California where Obama is surging. Mrs. Arnold Schwarzenegger, Maria Shriver, suddenly jumped up on the stage at UCLA and decided-- on the spot-- to make her support of Barack Obama public, joining in a celebratory moment with Oprah, Caroline Kennedy and Michelle Obama. Ethel Kennedy wasn't there but she issued an endorsement as well-- as did Garrison Keillor and Robert De Niro.

There was a time when NARL meant something that was part of the struggle for liberation and progress. Since then they've become another conniving Inside the Beltway interest group that will back a Joe Lieberman as he seals the fate of our Judiciary by manipulating the confirmation of an anti-choice fanatic like Alito. Before NARL descended to that place of dishonor, it was brilliantly led by Kate Michelman who managed to accomplish everything that Lieberman's allies are attempting to wipe out today. I'm not sure if NARL is supporting Clinton or McCain or what Insider candidate they've made a slimy deal with, but Kate, an Edwards backer, wrote a great appeal at HuffPoon behalf of Obama Saturday.

The question I have been asking myself and others during my entire life in public policy and throughout this 2008 presidential Campaign-- the question which tens of millions of women and men have also been asking-- is how do we best bring America together in shared purpose, prosperity and, especially, equality.

Barack Obama, like John Edwards, is redefining what is possible and in so doing he's changing us, each one of us.

Many who had given up on politics are re-engaging. Many who had grown tolerant of the intolerable are now ready to demand more-- and not just from themselves but others. And many who had given up believing that the ideals of equality, dignity and justice would ever again be as politically important as money and power, now believe again.

And this too is why I'm endorsing Senator Barack Obama.

Barack and John Edwards were different candidates, with different backgrounds and life experiences, but all these many months and really throughout their lives, they have been on a common path.

Both are focused on changing our politics, both are committed to shaking the foundation of the Washington establishment, and both are profound voices for what our country should and can be.

DWT readers are probably aware that I was for Edwards too-- or, more appropriately, for Edwards' ideas. I wasn't terribly enamored with the candidate himself; I'm not terribly enamored with any of them and I like many of the ideas all of them have been talking about (the Democratic ones, obviously; the Republicans' ideas are hateful and ugly). After Edwards dropped out, my immediate reaction was to just vote for him anyway in the hope of sending a message to whichever Democrats come to power that out beyond the Beltway, there are Democrats in the grassroots who want the progressive vision John Edwards was voicing to be the predominant direction of the Democratic Party. Politicians don't take messages to heart. They take power to heart. I decided to vote for Obama.

He isn't perfect; what candidate ever has been? But the symbolism he represents is what I'm voting vote; I'll pray the rest works out. Hillary's symbolism has something going for it too. Half the people in this country will be justifiably heartened to see the ultimate glass ceiling shattered by her elevation to the White House. That alone is almost enough for me to want to vote for her tomorrow-- and I will certainly have no problem whatsoever supporting her if she faces off against the odious McCain in November-- unlike some of the childish and naive Obama supporters who are already threatening to take their bat and ball home and pout. But, for me at least, the Obama symbolism of hope and a new dawn is also powerful and compelling.

Whoever wins the nomination will be the victim of vicious, desperate smears from the far right; count on it. I have a sense they will have a harder time making their case stick with significant numbers of voters with Obama than with Hillary. I feel that any Democrat will beat any Republican in 2008. Americans are fed up with their greed and hatred, their selfish divisiveness and grotesque incompetence. A Democratic landslide at the top of the ticket could help replace hard core fascist-leaning legislators like James Inhofe with Andrew Rice or John Cornyn with Rick Noriega or Mean Jean Schmidt with Victoria Wulsin, Scott Garrett with Dennis Shulman, Robin Hayes with Larry Kissell. Obama is probably the Democrat best-suited to go up against a crabby, brittle reactionary Republican like McCain. He's well-suited to make a case for progressive values and principles and to banish the era of credibility-free divisiveness that has marked the ascendancy of George Bush, Dick Cheney, Karl Rove and John McCain.

The politics of the Clinton camp have always looked ugly to me. Hillary has surrounded herself with some of the worst and most corrupted elements of her husband's mediocre administration. I suspect many of them, alas, will find comfortable homes in an Obama administration too-- but hopefully without quite as much influence and power. So tomorrow I'll be up bright and early to walk down the hill and vote in one of my neighbor's garages. I'll look forward to voting for a forward-looking vision for my country. Halfway across the country, there's a vote just as important to me, one I can't take part in because I live in California, not Illinois. I'll be talking about that election later today.