"The Choice"

The New Yorker Endorses Barack Obama

Perhaps this will make up for CoverGate: The New Yorker has just endorsed Barack Obama in an editorial just released online and on newsstands on Monday in the October 13th issue. The editorial — by "the Editors" — is called "The Choice" and should probably surprise no one, but man do they make their case: 4,214 words with a laundry list of areas in which the Bush administration has failed the country, and McCain has failed to lead or inspire. (That's the kindest way of expressing it. Here's a ess kind way: "John McCain [has] played the part of a vaudeville illusionist, asking to be regarded as an apostle of change after years of embracing the essentials of the Bush agenda with ever- increasing ardor.") In contrast, the "Editors" point out how Obama has done just that: Leading and inspiring, but also following up his promise for change with thought, strategy, work and action.
It is notable, too, that in an essay of this length, only a single paragraph is devoted to McCain's "cyicism" in choosing Palin. That said, on this, the day of the Vice-Presidential debate, it's the one everyone will read it looking for. Here's an excerpt.