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When It Rains, It Pours
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While the political establishment sought new and different ways to explain the gifts a Sen. Ted Kennedy endorsement brings to the Barack Obama's campaign, the Time Magazine's and the Salon's missed one key endorsement the winner of South Carolina's Democratic Primary received Monday: Shepard Fairey.
Fairey, the acclaimed poster artist and illustrator whose Obey Giant posters have plastered billboards and electrical boxes from Santa Monica to Highland Park, focused on Obama's progressivism in his endorsement.
I believe with great conviction that Barack Obama should be the next President. I have been paying close attention to him since the Democratic convention in 2004. I feel that he is more a statesman than a politician. He was against the war when it was an unpopular position (and Hillary was for the war at that time), Obama is for energy and environmental conservation. He is for healthcare reform.
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So, what does this mean for Obama? While it doesn't carry the Kennedy mystique, Fairey's endorsement sends a message that this election is reaching all sectors of society. We are used to seeing posters from Fairey that are political ('Obey' is subversively anti-authoritarian), but rarely (but not never) has he created mainstream political messages for the masses.
Stirring up a passionate call to vote from the Los Angeles streets should tell us that the turnout we have seen in South Carolina and Nevada was not an aberration.
Fairey's Obama poster will go on sale Wednesday via his site. Proceeds from the 24x36 prints will go to produce more prints for a larger, statewide poster campaign.
For those keeping score: In the last three days, Obama has netted the endorsements of Caroline Kennedy, Ted Kennedy, Toni Morrison, Sheperd Fairey, Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, who delivered the Democratic response to last night's State of the Union address, and some of the California Teachers Association, who had previously backed Hillary Clinton.
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