ChicagoTribune: “Indiana, Go to Obama”

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Monday, May 5, 2008

Not since Robert F. Kennedy’s short-lived presidential campaign has the first Tuesday in May mattered so much. That’s cause for excitement in Indiana, a state that is typically an afterthought in presidential primary politics. With the race between Democrats Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton threatening to last until August’s national convention, and the candidates running neck-and-neck in Indiana, Hoosiers have a big role to play in picking the 2008 Democratic nominee.

At times, the historic contest between the first viable female presidential candidate and the first viable African-American has threatened to devolve into just another ugly race between ordinary pols whose positions on the issues are largely the same. But in recent weeks, Obama’s personal and political mettle have been sorely tested— and have been proven.

By contrast, look what we’ve seen from Hillary Clinton’s campaign in recent weeks. Her embellishments about the purported danger of a 1996 trip to Bosnia. Bill Clinton’s statement that the Obama campaign “played the race card on me,” and Clinton’s later, laughable denial that he had used those words. We’ve seen a campaign that has sought to tear down its opponent and pander to voters. The Clinton campaign is playing just the kind of politics that Americans say they detest.

We need a president who can forge consensus and compromise among ideological foes. Barack Obama is that kind of Democrat; Hillary Clinton is not.

Indiana Democrats, your choice should be clear: Barack Obama.

Read the entire re-endorsement HERE.

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Filed under Barack Obama, Election 2008