NC, Raleigh's News and Observer

http://www.newsobserver.com/opinion/editorials/story/1260528.html

Published: Oct 19, 2008 12:30 AM
Modified: Oct 20, 2008 06:00 AM

It's Obama

Much has been made in this election year of Barack Obama's Ivy League law degree, of his smoothly written memoirs, of his supreme gift of oratory, of his calm eloquence under the pressure of debate. But, say his critics, he is an elitist. He is not, they say, one of us.

In fact, the junior U.S. senator from Illinois -- the son of a white mother from Kansas and a black father from Kenya, the product of humble beginnings and a raising by his extended family, the kid with big dreams, the young man with much ambition, the hard worker who made the most of his education and his opportunities and then went to Chicago to help others do likewise -- could not be more of an example of all that America is and all that it can be. Barack Obama has weathered the rigors of a long and difficult fight for his party's presidential nomination and now seeks to make true the biggest dream of all, to become the president of the United States.

Today, a little more than two weeks from this critically important Election Day, The News & Observer, with pride and hope, in the belief that Obama is exactly what the nation needs at a time when the hills are steep and the winds against us are stiff, enthusiastically endorses him for president. His time has come. And these times have come to him.

North Carolinians need to hear no extended litany of all the challenges that face them and their fellow Americans. The nation is in an economic crisis, with unemployment high, small businesses threatened, health care inadequate and too expensive for many, and the consequences of the reckless greed of Wall Street all too painfully apparent.

The ill-conceived war in Iraq has drained the treasury and cost many lives, while the ongoing war on terrorism has no visible end. The middle class is burdened with oppressive uncertainty, and the American Dream of success and security -- the cornerstone of which has been the belief that opportunity for all, if answered with hard work, can be realized by anyone -- seems out of reach for far too many in this country.

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There is a crisis of spirit, and Barack Obama knows it. He has spoken to it with a call for change. His vision is not obscure, and not out of reach. And there is meaning in his words, from his pledge to realize universal health care to his promise to get the United States out of the mire of Iraq honorably, to his plan to restore economic stability and opportunity. His would be a government of thought before deed and of strength given by the people, not just exercised from above.

He would, more specifically, strengthen environmental laws and oversight of food and drugs, and would hold industry to account for the way workers are treated -- priorities that have been disgracefully ignored by the administration of President Bush. He vows to cut taxes for most ordinary Americans.

With more regulation of the financial markets and institutions that have been given too free a hand, he would bring order to the economy, recognizing that the battle to restore it will not be a short one. He would be more open to talking with other world leaders in a spirit of understanding if not agreement. He would keep the military strong and thus able to defend America and its allies anywhere, anytime.

With his choice of Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware as his running mate on the Democratic ticket, Obama made it clear he understood the gravity of that first important decision of any presidential candidate -- to pick someone who could be president. A 35-year veteran of the Senate, Biden is the chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee and a skilled and wise legislator. He is supremely experienced.

Obama, it's true, as a first-term senator is not that experienced. But over the course of a two-year-campaign, he has demonstrated a thorough knowledge of challenges foreign and domestic.

John McCain

Republican nominee John McCain of Arizona, son and grandson of Navy admirals and a 26-year veteran of the Congress, is a formidable opponent. His service to his country is an inspiring story of sacrifice in a Vietnam prisoner of war camp, where his courage and strength were tested to the breaking point. McCain didn't break. He came home and began a successful political career, earning a reputation in the Senate as a Republican who could deal with Democrats and as a practical man whose ideology was not easy to characterize.

His "Straight Talk Express" campaign for the Republican nomination in 2000 caught the fancy of many in the public but was brought to a halt with a rough attack from his GOP primary opponent, George W. Bush. Now, McCain finds himself trying to put distance between himself and the president, but he has voted with Bush most of the time.

And though McCain has the experience in years served, he has not shown much agility in terms of recognizing the need for some fundamental changes if the economy is to be returned to a sound footing. He speaks of the need to rein in Wall Street, yet he pushed some of the very deregulation that helped to make the current financial crisis possible. He prefers to skip over his early support and rosy forecast for the war in Iraq and instead focus on "victory."

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When it comes to the urgent issue of health care, McCain says he wants to improve accessibility by offering a tax credit to help people buy their own insurance, while he would tax health benefits offered by employers. It is a narrow idea, again one that fails to reckon with health care's actual costs. And leaving the system in the hands of the insurance and drug companies that now control it would mean that millions of people with health problems would not be able to buy insurance at any price.

But there is another serious question about McCain's decision-making, and that is his choice of first-term Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate. The senator reportedly wanted Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, an independent, as his number two, but conservative Republican leaders told him that wouldn't work. Palin was an ill-considered compromise. She has little experience and has displayed an alarming lack of knowledge on national and international issues.

The senator is an honorable person, but he is not the president this country needs at such a crisis point in history.

That president is Sen. Barack Obama.