Yes, the Antifits endorses Barack Obama.

As the Primaries rolls on to Super Tuesday, and the endorsement season well underway, The Antifits endorses Obama as the Democratic presidential candidate for the ’08 elections and as the President of the United States of America.

Is The Antifits jumping the bandwagon in endorsing Barack Obama?

The Antifits has been long a supporter of Obama. Way before you had Uncle Ted endorsing him. I don’t count the Murdoch- run New York Post for anything. And definitely way before Barack Obama became a schmoozing point. But supporting someone and an Endorsement are two different propositions, and The Antifits legitimately now believes enough to endorse Barack Obama for President, come January ’09.

Is it because I have gone down and dirty for Barack, been out on the streets of New York City with the Barack campaign and have called people on my Cingular minutes to convince them about Barack as the Candidate in ‘08? Is it because I have been confronted and abused by Rudy’s angry fanatics, who had been let down after Florida? Is it because he said no to the war in Iraq when Hillary voted for it? Is it because he is different or in other words, the first serious electorally viable Black candidate*? Is it because his healthcare isn’t truly universal just because that is the thing to do and concentrates on delivering health care to people who most need it, the way it should be? Is it because I have been reading too much of Bob Herbert on The New York Times every Tuesday and Saturday, or even Cohen, Kristol and Dowd? Is it because his stance on Immigration stands on the most comprehensive and humane platform? Is it because he is the only candidate who talks about giving tax breaks to middle class American families and realizes that Americans turning 65 deserve certain privileges since in their working lives they have made it grow 4.5 times? Is it because in Barack’s words, “we have gay friends from the south and people who go the church in California”? Is it because he talks about carrots and not just sticks when it comes to Foreign policy and comes across as someone willing to engage himself with the world? Is it because he has it in the gut to talk about that an American loses a job and wages go down because of irresponsible fiscal policy and bad economic management, rather than a Mexican who seeks the American Dream doing jobs an American would anyways never get down doing?

Or is it because of something else?

It is because when Barack Obama takes the stage, people do not know whether he is Martin Luther King or John F. Kennedy or Bill Clinton, or probably all rolled into one. You could be an Independent, a Southern Democrat or a third- generation conservative from Kansas, but Obama transcends political partisanship. Working inside his campaign, and being audience to him on the road, and in debates and rallies, it is apparent that Barack has that potential and charisma to be the blueprint for change.

Edwards was on the button before anybody on policy. Hillary is more comprehensive. But being the President of the United States is not just being writing thorough policy; it is being the most powerful man in the planet. It is about embodying America as everything America could and should be. Barack is the America the world loved as it came out in millions on the evening of September 11th, and let’s get closer again to the world that wears I heart New York T- Shirts and gets a little flutter in heir hearts when the Stars and the Stripes come in the picture. America is about Kennedy addressing Berliners in the height of the Berlin blockade and shouting to an audience without ration and food for weeks, “Ich bin ein Berliner”. Does not really matter what he ended up doing, but that marked and defined the United States commitment to West Germany, and if I might add, Liberty.

Is it a coincidence that the caucus in Nevada and Iowa, and the primaries in Florida, South Carolina and New Hampshire had numbers that are unprecedented? Let’s face it; never has Civic Engagement been more fashionable, and never have you used politics as conversation starters with women.

And as Barack says, “Ordinary people can do extraordinary things.”

Go out to vote on February 5th.

- Shreshth Dugar