More Obama endorsements: YAYS!

GARRISON KEILLOR ENDORSES OBAMA

Garrison Keillor, host of public radio’s “A Prairie Home Companion,” has endorsed Democratic Sen. Barack Obama for president, Obama’s campaign announced Sunday.

“I’m happy to support your candidacy, which is so full of promise for our country,” the best-selling author and humorist wrote in a letter declaring his support. “Seven years of a failed presidency is a depressing thing, and the country is pressing for a change and looking for someone with clear vision who is determined to break through the rhetorical logjam and find sensible ways to move our country forward. That’s you, friend.”

Obama’s campaign provided excerpts of the letter; Minnesota holds its caucuses on Super Tuesday.

In the letter, Keillor, whose books are set in the fictional town of Lake Wobegon, said seeing Obama and his family in front of the U.S. Capitol next January is a happy prospect that would “bring an end to a long sour chapter in our history.”

“And of course it will be exciting to have a president who can speak with grace and power to the American people,” Keillor wrote.

Obama addressed a crowd of nearly 20,000 at the Target Center in downtown Minneapolis on Saturday.
FOR THE FULL STORY CLICK HERE

MARIA SHRIVER ENDORSES OBAMA

This has always been a mixed marriage, the union of Republican California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Maria Shriver, she of the Democratic Kennedy clan.

But Shriver made it even clearer today, in Los Angeles, where she stood at a campus rally for Sen. Barack Obama to endorse the Democratic candidate for president. Shriver’s husband, the GOP’s own “Terminator,” had already endorsed fellow Republican Sen. John McCain.

“I thought, if Barack Obama were a state, he’d be California,” Shriver told the crowd jamming the rally at the University of California at Los Angeles. “I mean think about it. Diverse. Open. Smart. Independent. Bucks traditiion. Innovative. Inspiring. Dreamer. Leader.”

This, on the heels of singer and songwriter extraordinaire Stevie Wonder’s testament to Obama. Standing alongside Obama’s wife, after a long and emotional warmup of the crowd by televisioon’s Oprah Winfrey, Wonder led the crowd in a little a capella chorus of Obama’s name.

Wonder had sung at a closed-door fundraiser for Obama, but this was a very public appearance: “I now say yes to someone who I think can bring us togeith the singer,” Wonder said.
TO READ MORE FROM THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE’S “THE SWAMP” BLOG, CLICK HERE