Why I support Obama...

Why, I'll let him speak for himself (via Wil Wheaton) :

“When I am this party's nominee, my opponent will not be able to say that I voted for the war in Iraq; or that I gave George Bush the benefit of the doubt on Iran; or that I supported Bush-Cheney policies of not talking to leaders that we don't like. And he will not be able to say that I wavered on something as fundamental as whether or not it is ok for America to torture — because it is never ok… I will end the war in Iraq… I will close Guantanamo. I will restore habeas corpus. I will finish the fight against Al Qaeda. And I will lead the world to combat the common threats of the 21st century: nuclear weapons and terrorism; climate change and poverty; genocide and disease. And I will send once more a message to those yearning faces beyond our shores that says, 'You matter to us. Your future is our future. And our moment is now.'”

The first half of that cannot be said for Hillary Clinton. Granted, Obama was not IN the senate to vote for or against the Iraq War resolution, but he has steadfastly supported ending the war and not getting ourselves embroiled in other uneeded conflicts.

And from Patrick Nielsen Hayden:

I’m for Obama knowing perfectly well that, as Bill Clinton suggested, it’s a “roll of the dice”. A roll of the dice for Democrats, for progressives, for those of us who’ve fought so hard against the right-wing frames that Obama sometimes (sometimes craftily, sometimes naively) deploys. Because I think a Hillary Clinton candidacy will be another game of inches, yielding—at best—another four or eight years of knifework in the dark. Because I think an Obama candidacy might actually shake up the whole gameboard, energize good people, create room and space for real change.

Because he seems to know something extraordinarily important, something so frequently missing from progressive politics in this country, in this time: how to hearten people. Because when I watch him speak, I see fearful people becoming brave.

Obama certainly speaks with the gravitas of the likes of Jefferson, King and Kennedy. Time will tell if he can become one of the nation's Great Presidents. In any event, it's eminently exciting to be able to cast a ballot for a candidate who is not just "better than Bush" (like Kerry was in '04), but truly is someone I would choose as leader of this nation.