The Endorsment You've Been Waiting For

I've changed my mind.

At the democratic primary in my state, I voted for Hillary Clinton, for purely objective reasons. Though I was already impressed with Obama's ability to inspire, when I looked strictly at the issues, I found that Clinton's positions more closely matched my own. A lot of it boiled down to her position on national health care. And I found her approach to Iraq a little more reasoned.

Back at that time, though, I felt as though we were rather fortunate to have three candidates who would have made good presidents. John McCain didn't even seem half bad to me, though I rarely support a Republican.

But in the months since, I've changed my Democratic preference and have become quite sure that a McCain presidency would be a tragedy.

Hillary Clinton has greatly disappointed me in the strategy she's now employed to try and claw her way back into the race, and I'm finally seeing the issue of integrity that others have pointed out. A turning point came when she described dodging sniper fire in Baghdad--an event that clearly never happened. Moreoever, the Clinton efforts to find dirt on Obama seems to have come up with exactly nothing. Recent reports now hint that Clinton knows she cannot get the nomination, but wants to dilute the race making it likely that Obama will lose to McCain, setting up her last-grasp for the White House in 2012.

Barrack Obama now appears to be exactly what he appears to be. Honest, hardworking, inspiring. The last Clinton innuendo--that Obama lied by referring to himself as "professor of law" at the University of Chicago, when in reality his title was "senior lecturer"---pretty much fell apart when U of C issued a statement that indeed Obama was considered a faculty member and could rightly use the title of Professor. Nothing I have seen thus far has put Obama's character in serious question. He is terrifically ambitious...that's just about the worst thing you can say about him.

Also impressive to me, though, is the fact that Barack and Michelle Obama seem to have the legitimate kind of family life that other candidates like to falsely claim. Despite common arguments that a candidates private life is irrelevant to the ability to govern, I believe this is nonsense. Surely a candidate who has the ability to lead an honorable family life brings viable skills to the act of leadership. There is a stunning difference in the quality of the Obama family when compared to the Clintons.

As far as John McCain, the final nails were driven into the coffin when I learned this week that McCain once publicly called his wife a c----, when she teased him about his thinning hair. Several different sources substantiated this event. And McCain once explained that the reason Chelsea Clinton was so ugly was that Janet Reno was her father.

This kind of stuff pretty well overwhelms a couple of positives about McCain--such as the fact that he refuses to use his son's military service in Iraq to his own political gain.

So here it is. Barack is my candidate. I hope we get to celebrate in November.