I endorse Senator Barack Obama for the democratic nomination, and as the future president of our country. Like many, I am invigorated by his emphasis on hope. Obviously the value of “hope” as a catch-word has been quickly noted and appropriated by politicians of all stripes – in his final State of the Union message, I heard George W. Bush use the word at least five times. But no matter how much sap can be sucked from a word by its appropriation (I’m thinking now of the word “green”), its fundamental framing in Obama’s philosophy has great power.

Untold millions of dollars have been spent in the last two elections trying to “get out the youth vote” – I’m thinking now of MTV’s “Rock the Vote” as well as the efforts of both parties. And yet, despite the sharp upturn in the youth vote over the previous 20 years, in our last election, participation of America’s youngest voting demographic was 47%, as opposed to 66% of citizens 25 and older (www.civicyouth.org). In our primaries so far, the youth vote has more or less tripled in Iowa, South Carolina, and Florida primaries and increased by 25% in New Hampshire (www.newvotersproject.org). Of that youth vote on the democratic side, Obama has better than a 3:2 lead over Clinton. Change drives the youth vote for both candidates, but hope drives Obama’s lead with youth.

I have been an admirer of Hilary Clinton and have written about her in the past. But the woman I have been seeing in the last several months reminds me too much of my career in theatre. From the Martha-Stewart-style framing of her announcement to her morphing self-presentations over the last several months, I no longer feel that I can trust her to be constant. What face will she wear in foreign policy, depending upon the region? What persona will she strategically settle into in order to compete in a race against a candidate (presumably John McCain) who is playing the same insider-but-really-I’m-an-outsider card? In a race that may well be about character, McCain will surely triumph, if only because he plays the same one in every show.

My confidence in Obama also comes from what I perceive as his principled courage. For example, when Barack stepped up to support removing cap on the social security payroll tax, Clinton was unwillling to violate the rhetorical rule established by the Republican right against suggesting any kind of tax increase, however equitable or reasonable. Refusing to be pinned down by her interviewer, Clinton said she would seek a solution to the social security crisis where we could “all hold hands” and agree. This does not strike me as a principled, clear-eyed answer, and I am annoyed as hell by evasiveness. Thinking again of McCain as the republican nominee, if character and principle are his leading traits, Obama can match him cheek by jowl (and we know who has a cheek and who has a jowl) - and we may have an election that is about policy rather than personality.

Obama’s positive profile abroad and the eagerness with which his campaign is greeted in Europe and elsewhere (http://themoderatevoice.com) informs us that he is perceived as being a president who will step up to manifesting the kinds of changes in international affairs, in terms of both policy and tone, that may yet heal our mutilated standing among nations. As he said in the recent LA debate, Barack intends "not just end the war, but end the mindset that got us into this war in the first place."

Finally, speaking personally, for eight long years I have felt that my sense of patriotism had no place in American politics. Obama shows me a future when the word “patriot” is not the property of the self-righteous right. Obama encourages me – and millions of other Americans – to hope that our Constitutional values and our compassionate spirit as a nation may still be revitalized. Despite eight years of erosion of our rights as citizens, we may again become a nation devoted to human rights – our own as well as those of others. Despite eight years spent earning the contempt of the world through actions that did not have our support as citizens, we may become respectable and respected in the world community again. Despite decades of spectacle intended to make us into mindless consumers, we may become proud, thinking citizens again. Such transformations require a president with the kind of principles, constancy, bravery, and hope that Barack Obama offers us. That’s why he’s getting my vote on Tuesday, and I hope that he’ll get yours as well.