One-track mind

[blueyedbaby]

Today I read the first convincing endorsement for Barack Obama that I've seen to date. And let me just say that I really could care less that Deval Patrick and John Kerry and Ted Kennedy (and Caroline Kennedy) have all endorsed him. I really could care less that he has a number of glowing recommendations from a number of politicians and celebrities

Comments

[cos]

I read that xkcd endorsement and even though I already favor Obama (and Edwards) over Hillary Clinton, I still found it very useful - especially in reminding me of Obama's consultation with Lawrence Lessig. I've long found that in a race where you have multiple candidates with strong liberal positions that are very close to each other, the best heuristic to identify who the really progressive ones are (as opposed to just liberal) is to look at process issues, particularly election reform and open/transparent government and accountability. If you just had candidates' position statements to go on, that strategy would've worked to identify Pat Jehlen as the progressive vs. Mackey when most of their positions were about the same, and it would've worked to identify Denise Provost as the progressive vs. Elizabeth Moroney, and so on. xkcd reminded me that this works in comparing Obama with Clinton, because both of them are very liberal, and I've long felt that Obama is at least partly a progressive while Clinton is not.

However, another piece I read recently that I found useful and thought-provoking that looks at a completely different aspect of their differences is this one, about conflict resolution. I was feeling conflicted about Obama's apprently conciliatory bridge-building approach, because on the one hand I feel like we really need to fight against completely unreasonable Republicans, and on the other hand I really like bridge building as long as it's used as a way to get people to work with you on the right things, rather than just a cover to "compromise" with radicals. I've *felt* good about Obama's bridge-building style and it hasn't ever seemed to come at the expense of principle (unlike, say, Bill Clinton's presidency), but had a hard time putting my finger on it in a way that allayed fears.

P.S. Regarding the issue of people getting Bill and Hillary confused, I just recently heard an episode of On Point on WBUR that dealt with that, in the context of Bill's involvement in the campaign. You might find it interest, although unfortunately the guy they had representing the Clinton campaign on that program was awful.