In a Washington Post op-ed Tuesday, Ayelet Waldman explains why it’s not contradictory for women to support Barrack Obama instead of Hillary Clinton.

“We are lucky this year to have two such remarkable candidates running for president, two candidates who inspire passion — as both Hirshman and my words make clear,” Waldman writes. “What is also clear, however, is that nothing can be gained by making broad generalizations and unwarranted accusations.”

To read the entire column, click here.

With Super Tuesday only one day away, Michael Chabon and Ayelet Waldman are hitting the editorial pages to push their candidate, Barack Obama.

In The Washington Post on Monday, Chabon says up until now, he’s patiently listened as people told him reasons to not vote for Obama.

“But now, with everything seeming to come down, at last, to the first Tuesday in February, and in the wake of an all-out, months-long push by the cynicism industry to cook up an entire line of bad reasons ready to heat and serve, I admit that I’m getting tired of listening to rationales from people who know that Obama is a remarkable, even an extraordinary politician, the kind who comes along, in this era of snakes and empty smiles, no more than once a generation,” Chabon writes.

And on Sunday, Chabon and Waldman tried to win over undecideds in their home state through an op-ed in the San Francisco Chronicle.

To date, Chabon and Waldman have raised $25,930 for Obama. It’s just shy of their final goal of $30,000.

Michael Chabon came to the defense of Barack Obama in a blog post Tuesday, arguing Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen was trying to scare readers into thinking Obama was anti-semite.

“Barack Obama knows that black people and Jews need to come together to fight for all the important issues and values they share,” Chabon wrote in a blog posting at The Huffington Post. “He knows that we need to start talking from the center of our communities, and stop whispering or shouting at the extremes.”

In Cohen’s column, also published Tuesday, the op-ed writer castigated Obama for not speaking out against an award presented to Louis Farrakhan by a magazine affiliated with the Democratic presidential candidate’s church in Chicago. Farrakhan, Cohen says, “epitomizes racism, particularly in the form of anti-Semitism. Over the years, he has compiled an awesome record of offensive statements, even denigrating the Holocaust by falsely attributing it to Jewish cooperation with Hitler.”

Chabon criticizes the column, and says Cohen is working to wrongly create fear among readers. “Let’s all choose, Jews and African-Americans, to set fear aside, and work for a return to the days, whose memory Cohen’s fear-mongering so grievously tarnishes, when we set aside everything that separated us to join together in the service of our common American good,” he says.

Again, apologies for the lack of recent updates. Chabon news has been hard to come by as of late, and I’ve been busy with life myself.

I thought, though, given all the headlines of late about the Democrats and fundraising, we might check in on how Chabon and Waldman are doing. As you may recall, in April, Chabon and Waldman endorsed presidential candidate Barack Obama. Their goal has been to raise $25,000 for the guy.

Where are they so far? Since then, they’ve raised $10,970 from 51 people for Obama, according to their outreach page.

And since April, Chabon has himself jumped into the donor game. Waldman had already donated $4,600, this site reported, but records at the time hadn’t shown any contributions from Chabon for 2007. Now, according to FEC records, Chabon has himself contributed $4,800, the maximum amount for both primary and general election cycles. The contributions are both dated April 28.

Michael Chabon and Ayelet Waldman sent out an e-mail Thursday directing friends to donate to the campaign of Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama.

The couple is aiming to raise $25,000 for the campaign, and has established an outreach page on Obama’s campaign Web site.

“We can imagine and we believe that a Barack Obama presidency would repair the incalculable damage the Bush cabal has done to our country and to our reputation in the world,” the couple said in their e-mail. “Talk about shock and awe — imagine the signal it would send to the traumatized, impoverished, alienated people of the world (of Africa, of the Middle East) if the face of our country was President Barack Obama.”

The endorsement comes a week before Chabon’s newest novel, The Yiddish Policemen’s Union, hits the stands, which is sure to bring increased media attention to Chabon and his causes. Obama to date has raised $25.7 million, putting him in second in building a warchest to Sen. Hilary Clinton, who has nearly $31 million.

Waldman attended Harvard Law School with Obama. Chabon, the e-mail said, has met him.

“Give for whatever reason you like,” they wrote. “Because you like Obama, or because you like us. Because of all the elections where you had to hold your nose as you pulled the lever. Hell, we don’t care if you give just because one time we donated to your diabetes walkathon or your AIDS ride or your kid’s school auction.”

Federal Election Commission reports show Waldman has contributed $4,600 to Obama, the maximum amount when contributing for both the primary and general election. The FEC’s Web site does not show any contributions from Chabon in 2007, though it appears the site is still being updated with the most recent filing information. In 2004, he contributed $500 to Obama’s U.S. Senate campaign.

Waldman has for a while indicated her hopes that Obama would make it to the White House. On her blog in 2005, shortly after he’d been elected to the Senate, Waldman said she’d like to see Obama run for vice president with Barbara Boxer going for commander in chief (“it’s fantasy politics, people,” Waldman wrote).

To donate to Obama at Waldman and Chabon’s personal fundraising site, click here.