Why I Support Obama

I've never gotten into politics on this blog before, or even substantially deviated from knitting, but I feel the need to for a couple of reasons:
1. Ravelry just makes knitting blogs a bit redundant.
2. I'm a policy student, this stuff is my life.
3. Why should I limit my blog? It's not like all I think about is knitting!
4. Writing about stuff helps you to think more clearly about it.

So I watched the Democratic debate tonight. Despite being a bit of a political junkie I hadn't watched a debate since, like, April. I figured that getting exposed to all of the mudslinging in the papers, on the radio, on TV, and in daily conversation was enough. This time around I thought it would be amusing. You see, the Democrats are down to Obama, Clinton, and Gravel. I assumed that all of them would be invited to the debate, Gravel would actually get to talk a little bit, and hilarity would ensue. I'm amused by how nuts that guy is. CNN apparently isn't so amused by his insanity becase they prevented him from appearing in the debate.

Back to the point, I realized why I find Obama so refreshing. It's not the issues- his positions hardly differ from Clinton. I would anticipate very little policy difference between each of their presidencies. The reason that I find Obama appealing and Clinton repulsive is their approach to governance. Obama, rather than the usual petty disputing of facts, seems to realize that differences in political preferences are a result of differences in fundamental values. Rather than exploiting these differences by jumping right to the fundamentally divisive issues (abortion, size of government, distributional justice) he focuses on the values that are held in common. He emphasizes dialog and coalitions, which is exactly what we need if we are to work past our deepest divisions.

Clinton, on the other hand, seems to thrive on the back-and-forth, divisive politics that have dominated since the Regan era. (Or so I hear- I'm 22 and I've only been paying attention to politics for about 7 years. I'm fortunate enough not to remember Regan.)

Bottom line: divisive partisan politics don't get things done. (Ex: SCHIP). After all of the damage that the Bush Administration has done over the past 7 years, we need a President that can move past petty party identity and ideology to bring about the progress that our country so desperately needs.