Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius Backs Obama

As the Advocate's resident Kansan blogger, let me just say how surprised I was when our Red-State Govenor, Kathleeen Sebelius, formally endorsed Senator Obama this week.  Obama came to Kansas on Tuesday to rally for our upcoming caucus "Super Tuesday" -- the first such primary in the our state's history to, well, really make a difference.

Obama was greeted by a huge crowd of my fellow University of Kansas students, a group known as the Barack Chalk Jayhawks (our chant is "Rock Chalk Jayhawks," ... long story) and several other Eastern Kansas democrats including Govenor Sebelius.  It's hard to understand that perhaps one of the reddest, sexist, and homophobic states has a female and liberal govenor, but if "middle-America" made sense, more people would live here.

Obama actually has family members from Kansas, his mother and grandfather both hailed from El Dorado (El Dor-AY-do) Kansas, the city in which Govenor Sebelius annonced her endorsement.

"Barack Obama has Midwestern values, values that we know about," Sebelius said. "He got them from his grandparents and from his mom.  "He understands how to bring people together across party lines.  He knows about not just working for the individual good but working for the common good . . . the kinds of values we believe in here in the heartland."

Because of Sebelius' success in the Republican state (she's in her second term), and because of her relationship with the Illinois senator, many political predictions point to her as his potential runningmate.

Either way, the trip marks the SECOND time in the past four months that Obama has rallied in Kansas.  His big-time campaigns in small states like Kansas are smart, especially because not many months ago, many Kansans hadn't even heard of the senator, much less his presidential bid. 

When he first entered the race, I asked several of my Western Kansas (the more conservative side of the state) family members what they thought of Barack Obama running, and after several moments of confused silence they asked me how a terrorist could run for president. 

Now, everyone has heard of him, and it's likely he'll win our state delegates with our govenor's surprising endorsement.

Even while I started as a Hillary supporter and was signed up with her official campaign, she has yet to make mention of Kansas and hasn't stepped foot within the state.  On the other hand, I personally met Obama in October, and have had several other opportunities to meet with him since.  He has reached out not only to Kansas but to students in such a way that I have never seen. 

It's astonishing how much support Obama has garnered in such a short span of time.  I can verily tell you that Obama is charismatic, charming, and fascinating and most importantly from a Midwestern standpoint, as demonstrated by the support of my fellow statesmen, he is electible.