Author Dave Eggers and his independent publishing house, McSweeney’s, has launched a campaign persuading voters to re-elect Barack Obama in November. The operation, called “90 Days, 90 Reasons,” features some of Barack Obama’s most notable supporters, including Judd Apatow, Roger Ebert, and John Hodgman.
Eggers, best known for his 2000 memoir, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, wrote the following on the campaign’s website:
Millions of voters, the same ones who campaigned so fervently for Obama in 2008… are collectively looking at this election and thinking, ‘I’ll sit this one out’…
The economy is in better shape now than it was in 2008—that is beyond debate. [Obama] ended the war in Iraq and he’s nearly finished our role in Afghanistan. And he accomplished what Bush’s two wars were meant to do: he removed the threat of Osama bin Laden. He has made great strides in access to healthcare and higher education, in protecting the environment, in gay rights and women’s rights… The list goes on. And this list is the purpose of 90 Days, 90 Reasons.
Each day will provide an essay from one of the campaign’s supporters expanded on McSweeney’s belief in Obama. Only two have been posted so far, including Ebert’s piece:
I had great health for most of my life. Then in my 60s, cancer pulled the rug out from under me. Five surgeries, four rehabilitations, you don’t want to know. I was lucky to have good employment-based insurance. One important reason I will be voting for Obama is his health plan… What bothers me about Romney is that he denies the success of his own “Romneycare” in Massachusetts. It was his signature program. Now it’s as if he’s never heard of it. We need health care in this country.
I am voting for Barack Obama this fall because I want a president who recognizes that gay or straight, the rights of married couples should be equal. Marriage equality is undoubtedly the most important civil rights issue of our generation. We must elect a leader committed to being on the correct side of history. Please vote for Barack Obama this November.
