Kerry For President

Regular readers of this blog will not be surprised that I agree with the New York Times that John Kerry should be our next president.

Right wingers will say, “of course the New York Times came out for Kerry”, and I agree. But that doesn’t mean the Times didn’t get it right. Jeff Jarvis points out that most of the editorial was a slam on Bush’s four years, a well deserved slam I might add, but it also had some good stuff about why a vote FOR Kerry is a good idea.

over the last year we have come to know Mr. Kerry as more than just an alternative to the status quo. We like what we’ve seen. He has qualities that could be the basis for a great chief executive, not just a modest improvement on the incumbent.

and this

We have been impressed with Mr. Kerry’s wide knowledge and clear thinking … He strikes us, above all, as a man with a strong moral core.

and this

Mr. Kerry has the capacity to do far, far better. He has a willingness – sorely missing in Washington these days – to reach across the aisle.

But this race is mostly a referendum on Bush. Why is why, Jeff, that most of these editorials spend most of their time talking about him.

And so I’ll leave with a quote from the New York Times endorsement that says it all for me.

We look back on the past four years with hearts nearly breaking, both for the lives unnecessarily lost and for the opportunities so casually wasted. Time and again, history invited George W. Bush to play a heroic role, and time and again he chose the wrong course. We believe that with John Kerry as president, the nation will do better.