If you live in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, California or any of the other 22 states that are holding primaries and caucuses tomorrow, please get out there and let your voice be heard. I hope you'll consider picking Barack Obama as the Democratic nominee for the 44th United States Presidency. There's a golden opportunity within our grasp. We can finally have a major impact in choosing this party's nomination. Let's not let it go to waste.

Weighing the choice before us isn't merely boiled down to identity box demographics. It's whether we choose to take a step forward with a clean slate or regress back to the entrenched politics of the status quo.

The only endorsement that really matters is the one you give when you go into the voting booth. Nevertheless, if a respected voice gives a convincing reason for their choice of a candidate, it's something worth considering. The following shortlist have provided compelling cases for Obama much better than I can:

• Sen. John Kerry (D-MA), former Democratic presidential nominee
• Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-MA), legendary liberal lion, a champion of women's rights, labor, the environment and social justice
• Tom Hayden, former CA state senator, anti-war icon, author of the Port Huron Statement
• Gov. Janet Napolitano (D-AZ)
• Gov. Deval Patrick (D-MA)
• Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO)
• Gov. Kathleen Sebelius (D-KS)
• The Los Angeles Times
• Rep. Xavier Becerra (D-Los Angeles, CA), highest ranking Hispanic in the House of Representatives
• Kate Michelman, former president of NARAL Pro-Choice America
• The New York Observer
• Gov. Tim Kaine (D-VA)
• Maria Shriver, first lady of California
• MoveOn.org
• Yale Daily News
• The Harvard Crimson

But I don't expect anyone to take third party's stamps of approval at face value, but solely on the basis of what the candidate themselves have to say. So stripped of all artifice and celebrity cache, please take some time out to listen to Sen. Barack Obama speaking with the editorial board of the San Francisco Chronicle on the challenges and solutions needed to put this country back on the road to recovery and redemption. I hope his words inspire you as much as they did me.

Labels: Barack Obama, Indecision '08, politics, Super Tuesday