Jan 6, 2008

Why Obama?

Lots of people have asked me recently why I'm such a fan of Obama's. Along with my pride in having voted for him twice when I lived in Chicago, I usually name a few reasons:
  • He offers a more sophisticated explanation of the appropriate place for faith in public life than any other candidate from either party.
  • He believes in America as a force for good in the world but doesn't equate this w/ reckless, pointless war.
  • As Andrew Sullivan and others have articulated, President Obama's name and face mean instantly better relations w/ many parts of the world.
  • His intellectual style seems to place more value in seeing all sides of an issue fully than in being decisive and right all the time.
  • Despite this, he offers bold progressive vision--the unity and consensus he seeks are not about centrist compromise. He's able to actually persuade people to support his ideas--to LEAD. And left-leaning Democrats don't have to choose between the "electable" candidate and the one who actually represents their views.
Since Iowa, some of the best analysis of Obama's candidacy has come from Ezra Klein--e.g., on Obama's current stump speech. Actually, all of Ezra's election coverage has been quite good.

This post from Daniel Koffler is also interesting.

1 comment:

  1. John G. PotterJanuary 7, 2008 at 1:53 PM

    he's found his way to national political office naturally, on a search to do the most good for the most people.

    he started in community organizing to serve the needs of people locally, moved from there to understanding & teaching law to improve conditions he encountered, from there to writing legislation, which, as he rises in office, becomes increasingly impactful.

    plus, he's from chi city and listens to hip hop - what's not to like?

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