The Oregon Herald enthusiastically gives its endorsement to Barack Obama for president of the United States in 2008.

The following lists some of the many reasons why we, the editorial management and the publisher of The Oregon Herald came to this conclusion:

When I was growing up in Portland, Oregon in the 1950's, Dwight D. Eisenhower was president. I wish I could remember Harry Truman but I was too young. Ike was a bit stuffy or conservative and my interests in politics began to mature when JFK ran and was elected president in 1960. Lots has changed since then.

The United States has been in serious trouble for quite some time. The gap between the wealthy and the working majority increases daily. Millions of Americans are without health insurance and others risk bankruptcy when they become seriously ill.

Our political theater oscillates every four to eight years, the amplitude of that swing is now more apparent than in the last half century. The tragedy of 911 attack gave us strong justification to renew our patriotism and more or less identify with Bush and sympathize for that man in power. It soon became blatantly obvious that those who planned the attack on 911 would never be brought to justice and it was easy to fall into the trap endorsing an already non-elected president, a third rate politician, ripe for the chance to become the emperor with no clothes. We forgave George Bush because he was one of us. Or so some of you thought.

If you believe, as we do, that it is imperative that a Democrat be elected president in November 2008, you have to consider how media coverage will help shape the election. Obama won the first round, made history in Iowa, and by a good margin, Hillary coming in third behind John Edwards. My wife would have Hillary Clinton win primarily for the excitement factor of a woman becoming president, to see Bill and Hillary reversed into the White House. It could still happen. I was wrong back in 2004 when I wrote an editorial declaring John Kerry would win. I must admit a reversed Clinton White House would be interesting, to say the least. But our country is at stake. And more than our country, the point of the prize is no less than the stability of the rest of the world.

Due to the arrogant, inept foreign policy of the George W Bush administration, more people abroad mistrust and fear the United States than at any time in the the last 150 years. Perhaps more. Global warming approaches at the speed of a catastrophe. It may already be too late to totally reverse the process. Many Republicans and overwhelming numbers of Independents and Democrats believe that, under George W. Bush, the nation has badly lost its way. The 2008 election thus comes at a critical time in the history of the United States and of the world.

It was an easy and unanimous decision for The Oregon Herald management to endorse Barack Obama for president because we think he is the candidate best able to begin to attempt to solve profound problems. No single individual, even a president, leads alone. But a president can alter the mood and the direction of a nation, making changes possible that once seemed improbable. John Kennedy advanced civil rights and an anti-poverty program. Barack Obama has the potential to be the same kind of president. His father was African, his stepfather Indonesian, his mother worked in the civil rights movement, and Obama spent several years of his childhood overseas. As an adult, he has been a community organizer, a law professor, and a successful politician. These experiences have given him an strong awareness of the problems of race and class, while also equipping him to speak beyond them.

Obama calls for negotiating the abolition of nuclear weapons, providing universal and affordable health insurance, combating poverty, investing in renewable energy sources, and engaging with all nations to ease conflicts that could otherwise lead to war and help improve life on planet earth. Barack Obama was the President of the Harvard Law Review, a civil rights attorney, he ran the most effective voter registration campaign ever, he taught Constitutional Law.

It is his temperament that separate Obama from the other politicians. He’s a gifted writer and orator. Not since John Kennedy has a Democratic candidate for president demonstrated the same charisma and thoughtfulness. Like Kennedy, he also inspires young people who see him as a great exception in a political world that seems mired in cynicism and corruption.

As president, Barack Obama would only begin the process of healing what ails our society, ensure that the U.S. plays an important and crucial role in the international world. We believe Barack Obama is the kind of politician who can explain the meaning of democracy to the average person, allow them to feel it, perhaps for the first time. He does not lash out at perceived enemies. He has strong observation skills, powers of excellent observation. He has demonstrated those skills in "Dreams From My Father" with the ability to look outside his personal world, look freshly at the world, the stakes around him. We believe Obama has the ability to earnestly sympathize with others. His skills reach beyond politics, to Republicans and Independents. His domestic priorities are similar to those of many of his opponents. But he doesn't fit into the traditional liberal mold. His health care plan, for instance, is the only Democratic plan not requiring all Americans to have health insurance. It only requires they have access.

Obama has been a hawk on the war on terror, criticizing the Bush administration for its failure to find Osama bin Laden. There’s no negotiating with these "hard-core jihadists," Obama has stated, "all we can do is hunt them down." He surrounds himself with an impressive group of foreign policy advisers.

On the negative side, Obama voted for the Bankruptcy Bill and for vice president Cheney's Energy Bill, none of which I support. I honor Obama's support for wind and solar energy, and legislation for biofuel. However, I'm not sure we have enough land mass to grow biofuel. Obama is supportive of nuclear technologies. I will never support nuclear energy. It will always be far too dangerous and the spent fuel rods will be with us, poisoning the earth for hundreds of thousands of years. Obama has toned down that support a bit as he works on winning the nomination from the Democratic Party. Barack Obama believes nuclear power is “green” and told the Senate Committee on Environment & Public Works, of which Barack is a member, that Congress should allow “nuclear power to remain on the table for consideration”.

Yes, these are all concerns. But the positive aspect of Obama's candidacy overweighs many of my objections. Hillary Clinton is no Obama. She has her bag of dirty tricks which will surely poke into public before long. Edwards is a decent man but probably has too little chance.

Obama is the most likely to urge Americans to the polls, those who don't typically vote, the young, the educated, and also African-Americans. And it seems to me Obama is the best candidate to be seen as the "change" candidate. Obama as president, will have the best chance of getting people of the world behind us, beside us. If elected, his term will be "on-job-training", no doubt. Such is always the case.

However, Obama has surrounded himself with people whose judgment I respect. I feel he’s more likely to listen to both sides, take his time, and make the right decision, not to placate but to strengthen our relationships with the rest of the world.

A Rose By Any Other Name:
It’s a cliché yet we share our space with billions of deserving beings on this small planet. The problems we face today are geometrically more complex than fifty years ago. There's no bright future unless we make changes, quickly, dramatically; elect a leader who'll have a chance of bringing us together. I believe this should be someone who will end the IRAQ war yet be strong on security, someone who has a chance to help us reason (if possible) and communicate with the Muslim world, for no other basis than the idea that his last name rhymes with Osama.

There are Muslim fathers, even fathers here in the United States who kill their daughters in the name of Honor Killings. Their innocent daughters are simply young girls who wear makeup or date, contrary to the Muslim custom. Their fathers have been known to track girls and slaughter them. Such rabid killers may feel no shame. But to me these "men" represent the lowest form of life on this planet. There may be no amount of change or reform that will help to raise these insidious, putrid scum to the level "humanity". The same can be said of other kinds of low life on this planet, Muslim or Christian.

I hope you get my overdrawn and obviously simplified point. Wouldn't it be ironic that if a man with the name of Barack Hussein Obama can be elected President of the United States, after 911, then we must be on our way to some degree, however small, of change or acceptance. It may also be ironic that we might find ourselves thanking George W Bush for screwing things up so badly, so horribly, that huge change eventually had to come. In that light we endorse Barack Obama to lead that change.