Bob McElvaine: "Why I'm Supporting Barack Obama"

Following is most of the text of an e-mail I received from Bob McElvaine of Millsaps College. Although I voted absentee for John Edwards before he dropped out - much to the chagrin of my wife who wanted me to vote for Clinton - and I'm inclined more to Clinton than Obama at this point, Bob's political analyses are always worth paying attention to:

Friends,

I'm writing prior to the Super Tuesday primaries to tell you why I am enthusiastically supporting Barack Obama’s presidential campaign and to urge you to vote for him and to ask your friends to do likewise. If you agree, please forward this message to others or send your own message to your friends and contacts, especially in Super Tuesday states.

Among the reasons I support Barack Obama are:

• As he has already shown in the early caucus and primary states, he can significantly expand the electorate by bringing in young people and African Americans in much larger numbers than these groups have voted in the past. This expanded electorate will make it possible to compete in and possibly win several "red" states in November.

• Barack Obama is an inspirational leader of the kind we have not seen since Robert Kennedy’s death forty years ago. He can bring together people of different backgrounds and unite a substantial majority of the nation.

• Barack Obama was right from the start about the wrong war in Iraq. Try as she might to rewrite what her vote for the war in 2002 was about, Hillary Clinton cannot re-right that vote.

• The election this year is one about verb tense. The American people have plainly and overwhelming rejected the present tense in the form of George W. Bush. The question is whether we will choose the past tense (going back to the 1990s) or the future tense. If Sen. Clinton is the nominee, the choice between her and Sen. McCain will be one between two different past tenses. If Sen. Obama is the nominee, the choice between him and Sen. McCain will very clearly be between the future tense and the past tense. Tomorrow will beat yesterday. The Washington Post poll today shows Obama defeating McCain by 3 points and McCain defeating Clinton by 3 points.

• The election of Barack Obama would send the clearest imaginable signal to the world that the policies of the Bush-Cheney Administration, which have so drastically lowered the standing of the United States, are over. His election would constitute a huge step in restoring America to its traditional position as a respected world leader.

• Democrats this year have to choose between two unifying candidates. One offers an opportunity to unify the fractured American nation—and much of the world. The other offers an opportunity to unify the fractured Republican Party. Large parts of the Republican electorate are very unhappy with John McCain. Many of them would either vote for Obama or stay home if he is the Democratic nominee. But if Hillary is the Democratic nominee, the Republicans will come out to vote against her. The choice is clear: With Obama we can transform the Disunited States of America back into the United States of America and leave the disunited Republican Party divided. With Clinton we can transform the disunited Republican Party back into the united Republican Party and leave the Disunited States of America divided.

Tags: barack obama, hillary clinton, robert mcelvaine