Louisville Courier Journal Editorial: Barack Obama For President.

Barack Obama for president

If current generations of Americans are ever to witness a time when hope must prevail over fear, when common good must be placed above self-interest and when America must respond to its highest values and reject its most deeply rooted prejudices, surely this is that moment.

It is at such junctures in history that the quality and nature of national leadership become critically important. Fortunately, one candidate this year appears exceptionally well suited to the challenges ahead -- intelligent, thoughtful, eloquent and steady.

That man is Barack Obama, and we heartily endorse his candidacy to become president of the United States.

In the sweep of American history, it is perhaps ironic that the significance of Sen. Obama's election would not be primarily that he would be the first African-American president.

The prospects that a victory for Sen. Obama could have great impact on how Americans view race, as well as pass the torch to a new generation, are exciting. But there will be little time to relish milestones.

The next president will follow one of the nation's most disastrous presidencies, and he will face grave challenges on multiple domestic and foreign fronts.

Sen. Obama does not have all the answers, and in some areas we wish he had offered more specifics. None of these problems will be easily solved. Budget constraints would force him to scale back some initiatives.

But he thinks along promising lines. And though a Democrat, his instincts to go beyond the Democratic-Republican, liberal-conservative battle lines that have paralyzed Washington are essential to building coalitions for progress and change.

His desire to cut taxes for most Americans while allowing them to rise for people earning more than $250,000 a year recognizes both the crunch ordinary Americans face and the need to restore the nation's progressive tax system. His emphasis on middle-class mortgage, bankruptcy and credit protections is a vital addition to the aid offered Wall Street.

Sen. Obama was prescient in opposing the Iraq invasion from the start. His call for a carefully calibrated drawdown of American combat forces -- subjected to stinging attacks initially -- is now similar to the views of the Iraqi government and many Bush administration officials. His focus on revitalizing the essential struggle against terrorism, in Afghanistan and Pakistan, is on target.

The daunting list of critical issues facing the United States goes on: health care, energy independence, infrastructure repair, early childhood education, struggling school districts, poverty, immigration.

Sen. Obama's most important gift, if he is given the opportunity to confront such an agenda, is that he has the depth and the reach to think big -- to attract the nation's best minds, within and beyond Washington, to develop coherent strategies for tackling crises that are on the table and the even more numerous perils that are in the making.

The problem with the alternative to Sen. Obama is not that the Republican Party chose Sen. John McCain, but that it nominated the wrong John McCain.

Gone is the "maverick" who opposed President Bush's disastrous tax cuts, which drained the nation's treasury while providing little overall economic uplift. Gone is the principled war hero who fought against America's resort to torture. Gone is the "man of honor" who wanted to raise the tenor of politics.

Sen. McCain instead has capitulated to the far-right obsessions of his party's base. He has embraced anti-tax extremism, disappeared on torture and looked the other way as surrogates leveled execrable accusations of "palling around with terrorists" and "socialism" toward Sen. Obama.

Moreover, the claim that Sen. McCain is a proven leader is simply unfounded. His stumbling and unsteady response to the financial crisis (preceded by admissions that he doesn't know much about the economy) were unnerving. The jury is still out on his insistence that the Iraq "surge" has worked, but the record is clear that he was wrong about Iraq at every step before that.

Most alarming of all, perhaps, is the cynical indifference he showed for the nation's safety and welfare in selecting Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate. Her utter lack of qualifications for national leadership has alienated even many leading conservative thinkers.

Some elections are far more important than others. This is one that America needs to get right. Barack Obama is an inspiring choice for president.