This excellent editorial from the Chicago Tribune, endorsing a Democrat for the first time in the newspaper’s history, Barack Obama in the 2008 presidential race, is worth a read. The Tribine has known Senator Obama for more than a dozen years. They have watched him and come to know him. It is all the more credible and sound an endorsement:
On Dec. 6, 2006, this page encouraged Obama to join the presidential campaign. We wrote that he would celebrate our common values instead of exaggerate our differences. We said he would raise the tone of the campaign. We said his intellectual depth would sharpen the policy debate. In the ensuing 22 months he has done just that.
Many Americans say they’re uneasy about Obama. He’s pretty new to them.
We can provide some assurance. We have known Obama since he entered politics a dozen years ago. We have watched him, worked with him, argued with him as he rose from an effective state senator to an inspiring U.S. senator to the Democratic Party’s nominee for president.
We have tremendous confidence in his intellectual rigor, his moral compass and his ability to make sound, thoughtful, careful decisions. He is ready.
. . . We know first-hand that Obama seeks out and listens carefully and respectfully to people who disagree with him. He builds consensus. He was most effective in the Illinois legislature when he worked with Republicans on welfare, ethics and criminal justice reform.
The Trib has admired John McCain in the past, but like some others, finds the man much changed, for worse, since his last run for president. It will certainly be worth reading what John McCain’s home state newspaper, The Arizona Sun, will have to say about his hand at the tiller.
Inform Your Consent 