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Los Angeles Times Endorses Barack
Obama for President
LOS ANGELES
October 18, 2008 — Barack Obama
is the competent, confident
leader who represents the
aspirations of the nation.
It is inherent in the American
character to aspire to
greatness, so it can be
disorienting when the nation
stumbles or loses confidence in
bedrock principles or
institutions. That's where the
United States is as it prepares
to select a new president: We
have seen the government take a
stake in venerable private
financial houses; we have
witnessed eight years of
executive branch power grabs and
erosion of civil liberties; we
are still recovering from a
murderous attack by terrorists
on our own soil and still
struggling with how best to
prevent a recurrence.
We need a leader who
demonstrates thoughtful calm and
grace under pressure, one not
prone to volatile gesture or
capricious pronouncement. We
need a leader well-grounded in
the intellectual and legal
foundations of American freedom.
Yet we ask that the same person
also possess the spark and
passion to inspire the best
within us: creativity,
generosity and a fierce defense
of justice and liberty.
The Los
Angeles Times without hesitation
endorses Barack Obama for president.
Our nation has never before had a
candidate like Obama, a man born in
the 1960s, of black African and
white heritage, raised and educated
abroad as well as in the United
States, and bringing with him a
personal narrative that encompasses
much of the American story but that,
until now, has been reflected in
little of its elected leadership.
The excitement of Obama's early
campaign was amplified by that
newness. But as the presidential
race draws to its conclusion, it is
Obama's character and temperament
that come to the fore. It is his
steadiness. His maturity.
These are qualities American
leadership has sorely lacked for
close to a decade. The Constitution,
more than two centuries old, now
offers the world one of its more
mature and certainly most stable
governments, but our political
culture is still struggling to shake
off a brash and unseemly
adolescence. In George W. Bush, the
executive branch turned its back on
an adult role in the nation and the
world and retreated into
self-absorbed unilateralism.
John McCain distinguished himself
through much of the Bush presidency
by speaking out against reckless and
self-defeating policies. He earned
The Times' respect, and our
endorsement in the California
Republican primary, for his
denunciation of torture, his
readiness to close the detention
center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and
his willingness to buck his party on
issues such as immigration reform.
But the man known for his sense of
honor and consistency has since
announced that he wouldn't vote for
his own immigration bill, and he
redefined "torture" in such a
disingenuous way as to nearly
embrace what he once abhorred.
Indeed, the presidential campaign
has rendered McCain nearly
unrecognizable. His selection of
Sarah Palin as his running mate was,
as a short-term political tactic,
brilliant. It was also
irresponsible, as Palin is the most
unqualified vice presidential
nominee of a major party in living
memory. The decision calls into
question just what kind of thinking
-- if that's the appropriate word --
would drive the White House in a
McCain presidency. Fortunately, the
public has shown more discernment,
and the early enthusiasm for Palin
has given way to national ridicule
of her candidacy and McCain's
judgment.
Obama's selection also was telling.
He might have scored a steeper bump
in the polls by making a more
dramatic choice than the capable and
experienced Joe Biden. But for all
the excitement of his own candidacy,
Obama has offered more competence
than drama.
He is no lone rider. He is a
consensus-builder, a leader. As a
constitutional scholar, he has
articulated a respect for the rule
of law and the limited power of the
executive that make him the best
hope of restoring balance and
process to the Justice Department.
He is a Democrat, leaning further
left than right, and that should be
reflected in his nominees to the
U.S. Supreme Court. This is a good
thing; the court operates best when
it is ideologically balanced. With
its present alignment at seven
justices named by Republicans and
two by Democrats, it is due for a
tug from the left.
We are not sanguine about Obama's
economic policies. He speaks with
populist sweep about taxing oil
companies to give middle-class
families rebates that of course they
would welcome, but would be far too
small to stimulate the economy. His
ideas on taxation do not stray far
from those put forward by Democrats
over the last several decades. His
response to the most recent, and
drastic, fallout of the sub- prime
mortgage meltdown has been
appropriately cautious; this is
uncharted territory, and Obama is
not a master of economic theory or
practice.
And that's fine. Obama inspires
confidence not so much in his grasp
of Wall Street finance but in his
acknowledgment of and comfort with
his lack of expertise. He will not
be one to forge far-reaching
economic policy without sounding out
the best thinkers and practitioners,
and he has many at his disposal. He
has won the backing of some on Wall
Street not because he's one of them
but because they recognize his
talent for extracting from a broad
range of proposals a coherent and
workable program.
On paper, McCain presents the type
of economic program The Times has
repeatedly backed: One that would
ease the tax burden on business and
other high earners most likely to
invest in the economy and hire new
workers. But he has been
disturbingly unfocused in his
response to the current financial
situation, rushing to "suspend" his
campaign and take action (although
just what action never became
clear). Having little to contribute,
he instead chose to exploit the
crisis.
We may one day look back on this
presidential campaign in wonder. We
may marvel that Obama's critics
called him an elitist, as if an Ivy
League education were a source of
embarrassment, and belittled his
eloquence, as if a gift with words
were suddenly a defect. In fact,
Obama is educated and eloquent,
sober and exciting, steady and
mature. He represents the nation as
it is, and as it aspires to be.
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