“I believe Senator Obama is the best candidate to restore American credibility, to restore our confidence to be moral and to bring people together to solve the complex issues such as the economy, the environment and global stability.”
That was former Republican Senator Lincoln Chafee Thursday endorsing Barack Obama, and we couldn’t have said it better.
You know you are a little behind the curve when Republicans start coming out for your candidate but, what the hell. We’ve been busy. Anyway, let it officially be known, the editorial board of this esteemed weblog endorse Barack Obama’s candidacy to represent the Democratic Party in the 2008 presidential election.
While Clinton surely has her strengths, we believe Obama is clearly the superior choice.
Clinton supporters will argue that Clinton is more electable We disagree. Think about it. We tried Gore. We tried Kerry. Clinton is just more of the same: a moderate Dem afraid to stand up for Democratic principles. She is content, instead, pandering to the most obscene dogma of the Right (her vote in favor of the war resolution) thinking that is the way to win over the electorate. Those methods have already failed us and Obama’s successes to date seem to indicate why: voters don’t agree with the dogma and never have. We just haven’t been given a clear choice until now. This election is the Democrats’ for the taking. We need to give the voters a clear choice, not Republican-lite.
Obama is also better than Clinton in a match-up against McCain. McCain is actually despised by the wing-nuts—cryptofascist conservatives and evangelicals who have formed the Republican base since the Reagan era. Some of them might vote for Obama, either for legitimate reasons or in protest. They probably would not vote for Clinton. Ann Coulter’s claim that she will vote for Clinton if McCain is nominated is a red herring. She wants Clinton in the race because she thinks she can’t win. She might not be happy with a McCain presidency, or anything short of Mussolini for that matter, but can anyone seriously believe Ann Coulter would vote for Hillary? If she did that her two-dimensional theory of the universe would collapse. Obama can also count on Independents, which Clinton can’t.
Which brings us to the next reason why Obama is the superior choice. A Clinton presidency would likely result in policy gridlock, exactly what the country doesn’t need after all of the malfeasant legislation and rule-making of the Bush/Cheney administration.
A significant portion of the electorate, from right wing extremists to moderate Independents, have been taught, madrassa-like, to hate Hillary Clinton. It isn’t even Hillary’s fault. She has simply been pimped by the likes of Rush Limbaugh as a vessel for anything people don’t like. It’s a sad state of affairs, but Clinton’s imprimatur will do anything but grease the wheels of efforts to undo Bush.
Even if all of the above were not true, at this critical point in history we ask, who do you want to set the course for Democratic leadership in the 21st century? The answer has to be, Barack Obama.
HEAR HEAR!
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