Democrats: We Endorse Barack Obama
Either Democratic candidate for president would effect positive change for the country.
After eight years under the thoroughly backward leadership of George W. Bush, a Democratic presidency - whether that president is Sen. Barack Obama or Sen. Hillary Clinton - would bring policy to the table that would put the United States on a totally new path.
Under a Democratic leadership, we'll finally be able to talk about universal health care, the confrontation of global warming and a definitive end to a tragic and flawed war in Iraq.
But this election isn't just about policy change. It's about restoring a positive, strong image of the United States, both to its own citizens and to the rest of the world. It's about uniting a totally polarized country and using that unity to generate the real social change that so many politicians promise, but can never deliver.
We endorse Barack Obama because he is the only candidate who truly represents the politics of unity; he's the one remaining candidate who stands a chance at overcoming the hate-filled politics that have stopped Washington in its tracks. He's someone we can finally believe in.
We've seen him turn out record crowds of youth voters throughout the early voting states. There's a reason for that; in rallying on college campuses around the country and reaching out to young voters and college students more than any candidate in memorable history, Obama has established himself as the "students' candidate."
He generates real excitement in the future of the country, something that's been totally absent throughout the Bush years. In the first states to hold primary contests, Obama generated heavy support from independents and Republicans. Even the most cynical of us have seen Obama speak and - even for just a few minutes - felt that there truly is hope to put the country on a new course and to unite a diverse group of Americans.
No other candidate is inspiring to that degree, to that many Americans.
An Obama presidency would put a new face on the United States in the eyes of the world as well. It would signal the end of the "Our Way or the Bomb Bay" foreign policy of the Bush administration and re-establish the respect that was squandered during the Bush years.
Obama has turned out enormous, energetic crowds on goodwill trips to Africa during his tenure in the United States Senate. As a result of his time living in Indonesia, Time Magazine reported in December that he is the most popular U.S. politician in rapidly-developing Southeast Asia.
Most important of all, he voted against the war in Iraq from day one. While it's true that both candidates have pledged to end the war, it's reassuring that Obama saw the numerous problems in the beginning and looked past blind nationalism in opposing the war. The same cannot be said for Clinton.
In the end, Obama simply generates an enthusiasm that we have not seen in our lifetimes. On one hand, it's just a campaign slogan, but this is one politician whose slogan we actually believe: Barack Obama can change America.
Nebraska Democrats should caucus for him on Saturday - and so should Independents, and so should Republicans (it is possible to register as a Democrat at the caucus).
This is our chance to be part of a movement.
Republicans: We Endorse Mike Huckabee
We're not interested in hearing any more hype on Sen. John McCain.
People like McCain and Mitt Romney, who in past political lives tried their best to avoid toeing a ridiculous party line, abandoned every principle in an effort to court ultra-conservative primary voters this season.
Now that McCain has emerged from the fray as the likely candidate, college newspapers across the country are endorsing him left and right as the "sensible, centrist" conservative in the race.
Hogwash.
He's abandoned everything he stood for when he ran for president in 2000; to elect John McCain will be no different than re-electing George Bush.
At least Bush hasn't declared that we'll be in Iraq for the next "100 years."
The GOP has failed to deliver any candidate who's roundly qualified to reverse the Bush Doctrine and fix a broken set of policy debacles.
This leaves us in a moral quandary of sorts, for we are a newspaper and newspapers must endorse.
The solution: We endorse Mike Huckabee because he was previously endorsed by Chuck Norris.
Mike Huckabee's plan to secure the border:
"Two words," said Huckabee in a recent ad.
"Chuck Norris."
Given the fundamentally low level of discourse on the GOP side this election cycle, we see that as probably the most workable idea.
And, as Huckabee pointed out in the same ad, "There's no chin behind Chuck Norris' beard - only another fist."
Indeed.
Most convincing of all, in the words of the good Arkansas governor:
"Chuck Norris doesn't endorse. He tells the world how it's gonna be."
Hell yeah. We endorse Huckabee and will pray fervently to Evangelical God today that he pulls off a Super Tuesday upset.
