The man gets to the point, no doubt about that. Richard Reich (with an eye on humility) formally endorses Barack Obama for President of the United States, over Hillary Clinton. He does not mention John McCain at all, perhaps because he assumes that his lack of support for the Republican is obvious.
Still, it is telling that he’s chosen to be so much more explicit in his anti-endorsement of Clinton than in his praise for Obama.
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.