2008 Democratic Primary Endorsement

This is not a political blog. However, on the eve of many of the primaries for this most historic of elections, I feel it is necessary and important for me to join the hundreds of other bloggers, newspapers, and famous people and issue an endorsement. So, my editorial board of one unanimously endorses Barack Obama as the Democratic nominee for the next president of the United States.


I first became enthralled with Obama four years ago, along with much of the rest of the nation, when he gave the keynote address at the 2004 Democratic National Convention. Barely old enough to vote, I hazily remember vowing to vote for him if he ever ran for president. When he announced he was, indeed, running for president I, too, wondered along with the political analysts and the media whether the "wonder child" of only four years ago now had enough experience to become the president.

But now I wonder, maybe experience isn't the only thing the president needs: After all, we have seen this last seven years a president that did have experience but did not, overall, have a successful presidency or make good choices for our country. If serving as the governor of Texas is not enough, if attending Yale isn't enough, maybe in this day and age we need more. Obama has more. He is a fresh face in Washington and is better able and better suited to see past the traditional methods of politics, be creative and endevour to actually do what needs doing and not get stuck in overly complicated processes and old ways of governing. This is the age of the Internet, of everyone has an opinion, of taking the power out of the hands of the traditional news organizations and putting it in the hands of the people. This is the age of Apple and Google, of innovation, and in this age, we just can't elect the wife of the president eight years ago: What's new there? Abraham Lincoln came to the 1860 presidential elections with only four terms in the Illinois House of Representatives and one in the U.S. House of Representatives under his belt. And won. And went on to do one of the most drastic and important things a president has ever done: abolish slavery.

I'm going to echo The New York Times and say that Hilary and Barack both have pretty much the same views on a lot of the issues. They are, after all, both Democrats. Looking past the subtle, probably insignificant differences in their health plans, looking past their voting records, looking past Hilary's dirty way of running her campaign, her acting, her unfair accusations, and what she stands for (nothing new), I would probably vote for her if she was the nominee. Going purely on looks, having a woman president would be just as amazing and refreshing as having a black one.

But she's not the nominee. Given the same facts, I'm going to draw a different conclusion than The Times--who endorsed Hilary on her "experience" alone--and endorse Barack Obama. He has the mindset, he has the intelligence, he has the capacity to step out of the box and really bring some change to the White House. Chances are, Hilary is going to do things like the Clinton before her; lacking a precedent, Obama is going to do what he thinks is best for the country and for the world. And I trust him to make those important decisions.

So, if you're a resident of one of the 22 states that is hosting their primary today, and you're registered to vote, I encourage you to do just that. Whether or not you vote for my pick doesn't matter, what does matter is that you listen and then voice your own opinion.

Oh, and if you're republican, vote for Mitt Romney. We don't want John McCain going and stealing the votes of the moderates.

*Tune in tomorrow for a guest endorsement*