goodCRIMETHINK

Since December 1, I have written increasingly about the presidential campaign and my growing support for Senator Barack Obama. I’ve created this page to make the case to anyone willing to spend a little time and to ask current supporters to do more.

The First Half: Why Barack Obama?For the first time in my life, the more I learn about a politician, the more I like him. I have written and read extensively, but let me do a summary for those of you in a rush:

• I admire his early judgement on the Iraq War. At a time when it was nearly political suicide to oppose President Bush, Obama spoke out strongly and publicly against this “dumb war.” When other politicians sought to protect their careers rather than the lives of thousands of Americans and hundreds of thousands of Iraqis, he chose the difficult but right path.
• I think his life makes him uniquely qualified to be the type of president we need right now. From his active family connections overseas to his community organizing in Chicago’s South Side; from his constitutional law professorship to his successes in the Illinois state legislature… Obama has demonstrated time and again an ability to work with people even diametrically opposed to him, yet still get things done
• I place a lot of value in his ability to recruit new people into the ranks of active citizens willing to actually participate in their democracy. From record campaign contributors to record voter turnout among people who’ve never voted before, it’s this ability to increase participation and thus investment in our democracy that earns my greatest respect. The problems we face require that everyone in this society be made aware of and work toward solving them.
• I feel moved and motivated to help improve this country myself. This is no small point. For my entire life, I’ve felt not fully American, and somehow outside of this country. Perhaps by virtue of being black and by the way in which I was raised, I always kept a distance from the USA and many of its destructive policies. Obama has reached beneath my cynicism and discovered a young man who cares deeply for the society in which he lives and wants to contribute to the hard work of making it better

Some additional resources

Things I have written, read or seen that I think make a clear case for an Obama presidency

• Showtime at the Apollo, featuring Barack Obama. Why Wait? (written by me in early December)
• Why I Support Barack Obama. (written by me the morning of the Iowa caucuses
• Obama’s Iowa caucus victory speech
• The endorsements of Caroline Kennedy, Ted Kennedy, Ethel Kennedy & Susan Eisenhower, Larry Lessig, The Nation and the San Francisco Chronicle
• The NY Times’s David Brooks on the difference between Obama and Clinton

Next: Why Not Hillary Clinton

As important to me in figuring out my support for Obama was figuring out where I stood on Hillary Clinton. Just before Thanksgiving, I wrote a three-part series explaining why I did not support her. I thought I’d be fine with her as president over any Republican but actually didn’t want her to be the nominee. Since writing that series, I’ve come to a point where not only do I not support her, in many ways I actively oppose her.

Again, a summary.

• I think the legacy of the 90s that she’s based so much of her credibility on is not nearly as great as she and many Democrats like to remember. The Clintons did a lot of damage to progressive causes in general and black people in particular, whether it was accelerating the massive, unequal incarceration of black men or so bungling health care reform that it set the cause back 15 years
• I don’t like the idea of the Bill and Hillary partnership back in power. I lived under Governor Mitt Romney, and lord knows I can’t stand the man, but when he said “The last thing we want is Bill Clinton in the White House with nothing to do,” he almost got my vote. There are serious issues of dynasty and ultimate responsibility that arise when the Clintons decide to do their partnership thing. Ask Al Gore about it sometime.
• I remain deeply offended by Senator Clinton’s over the top embrace of the Iraq War. Not only did she vote for the war, but she failed to read the National Intelligence Estimate in advance of her vote, made outrageous claims about the connection between Saddam Hussein and al Qaeda and still, to this day, refuses to simply say she was wrong on the biggest foreign policy decision America has made in decades
• I doubt the legitimacy of her claim to “35 years of experience.” She has been around power for a long time, but being around and being accountable to voters are very different things. If it’s experience people really want, then Bill Richardson or Chris Dodd would have been the choices. Obama has more elected experience than she does.
• I don’t think she can win, and if she does, I think it will be by a slim majority. Hillary Clinton is one of the few forces that can actually unite a demoralized and fractured Republican party. Making her the nominee makes the 2008 election about the 1990s, and we have too many serious problems to get bogged down in the past. She may even win, but she will not change the electoral map in any significant ways. Red states will stay that way.
• I am absolutely appalled at the negative, divisive and nasty way in which she has run her campaign. She and her campaign have been responsible for spreading lies about Obama’s religious background to the point of implying he attended a terrorist school; they have implied that he is a drug dealer; they continue to spread outright lies about his pro-choice credentials; they have used racist tactics (such as equating his South Carolina victory to that of Jesse Jackson or inciting divisions between blacks and latinos). Things have gotten so ugly, I set up a wiki to track these attacks, and they number nearly 40. The way you run your campaign is a reflection of the way you would run the country, and I am disgusted by what I have seen.

I like the idea of being able to support Obama purely on his merits — lord knows he has plenty — but it’s been very important for me to examine Clinton and discover so much that I dislike about her campaign, especially since January. I think we need to have and demonstrate some principles about the ways in which we expect our candidates to achieve victory. Scaring women into thinking Obama won’t support a woman’s right to choose shows a lack of principle. Having members of your campaign spread anti-Muslim, inflammatory emails about Obama shows a lack of principle. Reducing the success and significance of his campaign to the symbolic one run by Jesse Jackson 20 years ago shows a lack of principle.

And expecting that, despite such ugliness, Democratic voters will ultimately support you in the general election shows an excess of greed, arrogance and contempt for those very voters.

I am so committed to this campaign, that I’m opening my phone to anyone who wishes to discuss things further. If you don’t support Obama and have questions or concerns and remain unconvinced but willing to share and listen, call me. (you can also leave a comment)

646-633-4203