Obama for President

After months of deliberation, I have decided to throw the entire weight of this blog (about 1g) behind Barack Obama. Why Obama? One word. No, not hope. Policy. Obama is the candidate with the best ideas to lead America forward. Let's go through some of the highlights.

• Obama is the only candidate who has been right on Iraq since day one. While it shouldn't matter whether or not you supported the war, it is a lot easier to advocate withdrawal if you have a consistent position. It is always best to be able to draw a clear distinction between you and your opponent. Hillary Clinton can't do that. Obama can.
• Obama has by far the best policies on education. Hillary's are similar but are filled with one line throw aways like "Cut the minority dropout rate in half." How? I don't know. I don't think she knows. Obama's policies are actually explained. He also has a better program for making college affordable. He opposes the focus on standardized testing. He also includes teachers in his policy, something noticeably absent from Hillary's plan.
• Obama has the most feasible health care policy. Clinton has criticized Obama for not going far enough with his health care policy. Hillary's may be closer to the ideal, but it will never happen. There is a sliver of a chance that Obama could make his health care proposal a reality. I will take the realist over the idealist on this one.

Beyond policy, Obama is also by far the more electable candidate. He also has inspired young people to vote for the first time in a generation. There are some who claim that Obama's ability to mobilize is attributable to his successful use of the internet. I disagree. The internet is a great fundraising tool. It has been fairly unsuccessful as a mobilizing agent. Howard Dean was the first American candidate to really use the internet but his campaign couldn't mobilize anyone. Ron Paul has dominated the internet campaign in 2008 but has been able to get only about 5% of the Republican vote. Obama has connected to people in a way no other candidate has. He has used the internet, but that is not the only reason for his success. He has been effective at talking to people in a way that gets them excited.

Side note: Class has played a strange role in this campaign. Obama has won, according to exit polls, among upper income Americans. However, Obama has also won some of the poorest states in the union (MS, AL, SC, ID) while Clinton has won a lot of the wealthier states (CT, NY, NJ). I have no clue what this means. I just thought I'd point it out.