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Barack Obama
The United States needs a new direction
Obama offers what America now needs: Confidence without swagger, intelligence without condescension, a mind unencumbered with the baggage of the '60s, and an optimistic outlook eloquently expressed.
After the feckless leadership of the last eight years, the offer of hope is beyond appealing. It is essential. We need to restore this country's position as a bastion of human rights and re-establish respect for the United States government at home and abroad. We must reinvigorate and restructure our economy, revive the idea that children will be better off than their parents, and face the 21st century with confidence.
John McCain cannot do that. He is intellectually and emotionally trapped in a bygone era. And since his 2000 run, the maverick McCain has been replaced by one with a wet finger in the wind.
Obama, however, offers a clear and certain break with the past. And that is absolutely necessary. It is taking a chance, of course, but that risk is less than that of continuing Bush's work.
The Bush administration has been a disaster. A war over a Third World country has dragged on longer than World War II. After seven years, the invasion of Afghanistan has failed to find the killers it was meant to eliminate. We have embarrassed ourselves and debased our values by countenancing torture and mistreatment of prisoners. American energy policy is a trifecta of failure: Gas prices have hit record highs, while the profits fund our enemies instead of promoting new energy sources or health care.
The Bush administration stood idly by while an iconic American city drowned. Rather than talk to Iran, it allowed a dangerous regime to advance its quest for nuclear weapons. It inherited a surplus and transformed it into a doubling of the national debt.
It just goes on. In light of the last eight years, Wall Street's collapse and the administration's ineffective response seem inevitable.
McCain offers more tax cuts for the wealthy and more of the wars that together have mired future generations in debt. He would staff his administration from the same think tanks that introduced IEDs and Guantanamo Bay into our vocabulary. He admits knowing little about economics, and talks about "victory" in Iraq as if there is an enemy army there that might surrender. Undeniably heroic as a prisoner of war, McCain now seems erratic and reactive.
Obama also brings relevant experience. As a legal scholar, he would never accept the constitutional nonsense promulgated by Bush advisers. And, although mocked by the McCain campaign, as a community organizer he knows how much of society's best work gets done. Whether through nonprofits, grassroots politics, service clubs, or churches, community organizing is a model that runs on precisely the cooperation and communication absent from the White House in recent years.
The election of Barack Obama would in itself go a long way toward restoring America's standing on the world stage. And in today's interconnected world, that matters more than McCain acknowledges. It would also help restore the confidence and bolster the outlook of Americans.
The simple truth is we are a stronger, prouder and more resilient people than our government has reflected. We can do better.
Vote for Barack Obama.
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