by Frank James
This is dog-bites-man, I'll grant you, in other words, hardly a surprise. The New Yorker has endorsed Sen. Barack Obama in a piece called "The Choice" (kind of sounds like The One, no?)
In a 4,172-word essay which may require more than one latte to get through, the New Yorker renders judgment on President Bush ("The Presidency of George W. Bush is the worst since Reconstruction... ,") links Sen. John McCain to that presidency, gives the Arizona senator his due for once fairly regularly bucking his party but declares those days over, then asserts that Obama, despite some weaknesses, is the man for this moment.
Here's the final paragraph in which the New Yorker's editors gather up the various strings of their previous arguments to weave their final pitch for an Obama presidency:
We cannot expect one man to heal every wound, to solve every major crisis of policy. So much of the Presidency, as they say, is a matter of waking up in the morning and trying to drink from a fire hydrant. In the quiet of the Oval Office, the noise of immediate demands can be deafening. And yet Obama has precisely the temperament to shut out the noise when necessary and concentrate on the essential. The election of Obama--a man of mixed ethnicity, at once comfortable in the world and utterly representative of twenty-first-century America--would, at a stroke, reverse our country's image abroad and refresh its spirit at home. His ascendance to the Presidency would be a symbolic culmination of the civil- and voting-rights acts of the nineteen-sixties and the century-long struggles for equality that preceded them. It could not help but say something encouraging, even exhilarating, about the country, about its dedication to tolerance and inclusiveness, about its fidelity, after all, to the values it proclaims in its textbooks. At a moment of economic calamity, international perplexity, political failure, and battered morale, America needs both uplift and realism, both change and steadiness. It needs a leader temperamentally, intellectually, and emotionally attuned to the complexities of our troubled globe. That leader's name is Barack Obama.
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Comments
So what? Does that make him POTUS? Lol.
Posted by: brigitte | October 6, 2008 10:42 AM
There is no doubt in any sane person's mind. Senator McCain is bad enough and then to compound his problems, he selects a fundamentalist, who wants creationism in our schools, censorship in our libraries and federal agents snooping about, making sure a woman's right to privacy, would not be exercised !! This is the ticket to Nowhere and the Republican's think, by character-assassination, they can fool the American electorate, again, to vote for incompetents and unqualified candidates. I believe their lies and distortions will only enrage the electorate to elect the Democratic ticket, a ticket that represents all of the people, not just the Corporations and their lap-dogs, the Lobbyists, such as Phil Gramm, the " Whiner " !! Senators Obama and Biden will reverse the disastrous terms of the Bush-Cheney Regime and restore our government's concerns for the average citizens. The business of America is not business, it is the common welfare of its citizens, all of its citizens !!!
SUPPORT OUR TROOPS, BRING THEM HOME, ALIVE AND WHOLE. NOW.
Posted by: Don Fitzgerald, Chicago | October 6, 2008 11:03 AM
Barack Obama is a "decidedly liberal" senator "who was finding his feet, and then got diverted by his presidential ambitions", according to a frank verdict delivered to Gordon Brown by the British ambassador to the United States.
THE GUY IS A LOSER
Posted by: mark | October 6, 2008 11:39 AM
As an American living in Brazil, and as someone who's majority of friends are from foreign countries- the view of THE NEWYORKER is one that is reflected around the world. My co-workers here in Rio de Janeiro are always keeping an eye on the elections in the US and tell me that they hope Obama wins, for America's (and the world's) sake. Though it is easy to romanticize the role of the president, at the same time we need to realize that Obama will have a lot of baggage left over from the Bush administration to clean up should he win the elections. But the fact that he is running for president and could win gives hope to us all that America still has power to attract "the anything is possible" mentality that has made this country great to begin with. The world is tired of the old America, as am I. I used to be ashamed of our government, but now I know that I have a chance to feel otherwise.
Posted by: Sarah | October 6, 2008 11:55 AM
That last paragraph comes from sincere logic. We have some serious problems and electing Barack would say we as Americans are ready to move beyond things like racism. To not elect this guy with those credentials would simply say - there will NEVER be a black person good enough. And if you don't think so, you explain HOW a black person exceeds Barack's accomplishments. There is simply not another person I can think of that is better. Blacks know it, and so does the entire national community. And all those polls that keep saying this race is close is NOT FOOLING ANYONE. We know all of this is BS.
Posted by: The Truth | October 6, 2008 12:36 PM
to Sarah: You foreigners want him and think he's so great, take him, all he is going to do here is create a lot of programs for people who are already to darn lazy to work. If you're so ashamed just stay where you are, we don't need you. Being a citizen from his home State, he sure didn't do much for any of us, but he sure did make a lot of promises. If you're that gullible don't complain when he raises your taxes, because someone is going to have to pay for all his give-away programs!
Posted by: vla | October 6, 2008 1:33 PM
Hey vla: I'm not a f'reigner and I think Obama would make a great president. I'm also gainfully employed and voted for GW Bush once before. Uh oh, I think I just blew your mind.
Posted by: Joe | October 6, 2008 3:39 PM