It\u2019s no surprise that the liberal leaning New Yorker<\/em> is endorsing Barack Obama for president.<\/a> Although predictable, it\u2019s worth a read because it offers one of the more thoughtful looks at a complicated president who has disappointed many but, nonetheless, achieved a remarkable record. It begins with a reminder of the utter failure of the Bush presidency.<\/p>\n

Obama succeeded George W. Bush, a two-term President whose misbegotten legacy, measured in the money it squandered and the misery it inflicted, has become only more evident with time. Bush left behind an America in dire condition and with a degraded reputation. On Inauguration Day, the United States was in a downward financial spiral brought on by predatory lending, legally sanctioned greed and pyramid schemes, an economic policy geared to the priorities and the comforts of what soon came to be called \u201cthe one per cent,\u201d and deregulation that began before the Bush Presidency. In 2008 alone, more than two and a half million jobs were lost\u2014up to three-quarters of a million jobs a month.<\/p>\n

The gross domestic product was shrinking at a rate of nine per cent. Housing prices collapsed. Credit markets collapsed. The stock market collapsed\u2014and, with it, the retirement prospects of millions. Foreclosures and evictions were ubiquitous; whole neighborhoods and towns emptied. The automobile industry appeared to be headed for bankruptcy. Banks as large as Lehman Brothers were dead, and other banks were foundering. It was a crisis of historic dimensions and global ramifications. However skillful the management in Washington, the slump was bound to last longer than any since the Great Depression.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The endorsement continues with a discussion of Barack Obama\u2019s na\u00efve aspiration to lead as a post-partisan president and rightfully criticizes him for not effectively communicating his policies to the country. It then praises the President for his ambitious legislative, social, and foreign policy successes that \u201crelieved a large measure of the human suffering and national shame inflicted by the Bush Administration.” Rather than cheerleading, the endorsement offers a thoughtful and balanced chronicle of Obama\u2019s achievements. It ends with the following:<\/p>\n

The choice is clear. The Romney-Ryan ticket represents a constricted and backward-looking vision of America: the privatization of the public good. In contrast, the sort of public investment championed by Obama\u2014and exemplified by both the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and the Affordable Care Act\u2014takes to heart the old civil-rights motto \u201cLifting as we climb.\u201d That effort cannot, by itself, reverse the rise of inequality that has been under way for at least three decades. But we\u2019ve already seen the future that Romney represents, and it doesn\u2019t work.<\/p>\n

The re-election of Barack Obama is a matter of great urgency. Not only are we in broad agreement with his policy directions; we also see in him what is absent in Mitt Romney\u2014a first-rate political temperament and a deep sense of fairness and integrity. A two-term Obama Administration will leave an enduringly positive imprint on political life. It will bolster the ideal of good governance and a social vision that tempers individualism with a concern for community. Every Presidential election involves a contest over the idea of America. Obama\u2019s America\u2014one that progresses, however falteringly, toward social justice, tolerance, and equality\u2014represents the future that this country deserves.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n

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