Experience versus new ideas. This has been the frame in which the media has insisted on reporting the race for the Democratic nomination to the presidency. Little wonder. It is a frame in which old-guard concepts in both politics and journalism are treated with an ego-stroking tenderness, and in which every “new idea” is immediately set upon as a foible of an “inexperienced” candidate.
Suggesting that we negotiate with our enemies is a mistake; taking nuclear weapons off the table as a means to deal with terrorists is a mistake; intimating that lessons in tolerance and multiculturalism can be learned by a child is a mistake.
Yet in all these cases, public opinion has not followed, but rather steadily risen in a way suggesting that a bedrock of support is taking shape beneath the man who dared to make such foibles: Barack Obama. Poll numbers flex this way and that with every newly manufactured “scandal” of the campaign, but if you set aside the media’s momentary breathless flushes, you see a median number which always increases. This increase seems also to come out of the median of the “experience” candidates in the race.
While I’ve certainly shared my thoughts – positive and negative – on the presidential hopefuls, this blog has been more-or-less silent in terms of endorsement. To a large extent, that is because this site while certainly Liberal has always been non-partisan from the perspective of our two party system. This year, however, I felt the site should not be silent in pushing forward for what I hope is a better America.
And so, after careful consideration, I have decided that I will officially endorse Barack Obama.