Another paper has endorsed Barack Obama today. The Valley News notes factors including his willingness to “speak his mind to the constituencies that least want to hear it,” his opposition to the Iraq war, and political skills:
Part of Obama’s appeal is that he doesn’t claim to have all the answers. On the other hand, when he’s right, he isn’t afraid to speak his mind to the constituencies that least want to hear it. He traveled to Detroit and told the automakers to make more fuel-efficient cars, a suggestion that Ford Motor Co. didn’t take too kindly. And he wasn’t exactly pandering to teachers when he endorsed merit pay at a meeting of the National Education Association. He’s also taken on the lobbyists, helping to write a reform law earlier this year. Like his Democratic rivals, he offers a progressive domestic agenda, including more affordable health care, which would help the working poor and middle class regain equilibrium in a country where the inequality of incomes threatens the social fabric.
Obama has not wavered in his opposition to the Iraq war and would draw down combat troops. But that is not to say he’s an isolationist or opposed to a just war. To the contrary, he knows that stability in the Middle East must be part of a U.S. strategy to defeat terrorism and that a strong military is essential to national security. He recognizes the absolute necessity to reduce the threat posed by nuclear proliferation; he is the co-author of a law that aims to reduce stockpiles of conventional weapons and to help other nations detect and interdict weapons of mass destruction.
Ultimately, though, the case for Obama is not just what he proposes to do but how he proposes to do it. Voters who doubt Obama’s leadership skills need only look at his well-run primary campaign, which has taken on the Hillary Clinton juggernaut. Clinton is a formidable candidate — knowledgeable on the issues, a sharp debater, tenacious. She is more polished and more practiced than Obama. But she is less candid and less likely to create the working majority needed to govern effectively. She describes herself as battle-hardened, the candidate most able to beat back the Republicans. But that’s precisely the problem: She is an armored warrior in a country weary of partisan and cultural warfare; Obama wears no armor. He seeks reconciliation — at home and abroad — and steps forward, ready to speak a language of common understanding.
