Is this the Best Endorsement Barack Obama has ever had?

Barack Obama
(www.newyorker.com)

A few months ago the New Yorker was in deep trouble for its cover cartoon of Barack Obama and his wife Michelle in suggestive terrorist garb being anti-American. It was supposed to be satire, to give everyone a good laugh, to show Republican smearers how ridiculous they were, as it couldn't possibly be true in any sense. But it backfired spectacularly as many, many readers, not too schooled in the art of satire, failed to see the joke and were not amused. Now, the latest October issue carries a ringing endorsement of Barack Obama as the next leader of the free world as yet unparalleled anywhere else.

If a picture paints a thousand words, then the 4000-word editorial, headlined simply and ominously, The Choice, explaining why Barack Obama is perfectly right as the next president of America, paints the most transparent picture of leadership, competence, suitability, good judgement, hope and change. No gushing words are left untouched to challenge readers into making the right decision on November 4th. The New Yorker sees the chance of leaping ahead of the media pack in acknowledging what now seems inevitable and is proffering the crown even before Barack is anywhere near the throne. At least they are not flogging the dead horse of expectancy relating to John McCain and Sarah Palin, but facing up to the grim reality of the strong, unified, bi-partisan leadership America now needs and the fact that it won't be coming from the McCain-Palin camp.

This is very brave of any medium just now to stick their neck out so unequivocally to endorse Obama when there are still 25 agonising days to go before the nation speaks, and anything at all could happen, including the assassination of the heir apparent, judging by the worried reaction of some concerned supporters following recent rallies of Sarah Palin and the racist behaviour of some of her supporters. However, one would hope that America has matured and moved a long way from those dark days of vigilantism and racist angst.

The New Yorker article is extremely interesting, informative and very timely. It is a shot in the arm for any wavering doubters and a stark reminder of why Barack Obama is truly formidable at this moment in time.

The excerpt below is nothing short of inspiring:

"We cannot expect one man to heal every wound, to solve every major crisis of policy. So much of the Presidency, as they say, is a matter of waking up in the morning and trying to drink from a fire hydrant. In the quiet of the Oval Office, the noise of immediate demands can be deafening. And yet Obama has precisely the temperament to shut out the noise when necessary and concentrate on the essential. The election of Obama, "a man of mixed ethnicity, at once comfortable in the world and utterly representative of twenty-first-century America" would, at a stroke, reverse our country's image abroad and refresh its spirit at home. His ascendance to the Presidency would be a symbolic culmination of the civil- and voting-rights acts of the nineteen-sixties and the century-long struggles for equality that preceded them. It could not help but say something encouraging, even exhilarating, about the country, about its dedication to tolerance and inclusiveness, about its fidelity, after all, to the values it proclaims in its textbooks. At a moment of economic calamity, international perplexity, political failure, and battered morale, America needs both uplift and realism, both change and steadiness. It needs a leader temperamentally, intellectually, and emotionally attuned to the complexities of our troubled globe. That leader's name is Barack Obama."

Amen to that! Is it time for America to stop resisting and let change take its natural course?

Enjoy: The Choice!

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