On Tuesday Feb. 5, voters in 24 states (Connecticut included) will cast ballots for the Republican and Democratic presidential nominees. The Argus Editorial Board hopes voters choose Senator John McCain and Senator Barack Obama, respectively.
John McCain has made a miraculous comeback months after most pundits deemed his campaign finished. Senator Hillary Clinton and Obama have sparred over which of them have more of the experience needed to be president, but at the age of 71 and with a quarter-century in elected office, McCain has the most experience of any of the major candidates.
McCain once famously dubbed his campaign bus the “Straight Talk Express.” It’s proven to be more than marketing on an election year campaign trail littered with soundbites. All candidates should look to McCain’s admirable willingness to speak his mind, even in circumstances when it might lose him some votes. A prisoner of war during the Vietnam War, McCain spoke out against torture while many in his party bickered over its definition. McCain has also risked alienating the Republican base by reaching across party lines to work on bipartisan legislation, like partnering with Senator Russ Feingold to reform campaign financing and with Senator Ted Kennedy to grant amnesty and a path to citizenship for millions of illegal immigrants.
Still, his continued insistence that we can win in Iraq is divorced from reality. We cannot back his timid approach to healthcare reform or his stance on reproductive rights. Nonetheless, his experience and integrity make him the easy choice for the Republican nomination. Call us overly optimistic, but after two terms of a Republican president whose best skill may have been in dividing a nation, we think there’s a chance McCain could bring us back together.
But not as well as Barack Obama. There’s a reason Obama has amassed hundreds of thousands of Facebook friends: this junior senator from Illinois is the most gifted and inspirational orator our generation has yet seen. In a presidential campaign that may end up wringing the word “change” of any power, Obama has truly presented himself as something different.
Opponents have questioned Obama’s experience: he spent eight years in the Illinois State Senate before assuming office in the U.S. Senate in 2005. Clinton was First Lady for eight years, and has served in the U.S. Senate since 2001. In this case, a definitive assessment of “experience” seems impossible, and thus unimportant. The simple fact is that Obama has something his competitor lacks: a genuine charisma strong enough to inspire young people to care about their country—maybe even take on public service!
Obama and Clinton have isolated a litany of issues that will face our country in the coming years: an eventual withdrawal from Iraq, education and immigration reform, a strengthened economy, reformed tax system, real commitments to saving our environment, and universal (or in Obama’s case, near-universal) national health care. As they’d be quick to point out, their plans for dealing with these issues are occasionally unalike. We have confidence that either Clinton or Obama would make capable leaders. It’s just that Obama represents something more than competency: a fresh start toward a promising future for our country at a time when it seems like uncertainty may be the only thing that’s certain.
It’s not too late to register to vote: the Middletown Registrar’s Office is located in the basement of the Municipal Building at 245 deKoven Drive. It’s closed over the weekend, but you may apply in person from 8:30 a.m. until 12 noon on the Monday Feb. 4 for Tuesday’s primary. Follow Washington Street down past Main Street; deKoven Drive is the street along the river parallel to Main. If you are already registered in your home state but forgot to apply for an absentee ballot, you may switch your registration to Connecticut. Bring ID!
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