Letters to the Editor
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@ Sally
You're absolutely right when you say that the vast majority of lefty news and views sites overwhelmingly back Obama. But I think there's a good reason for that: he's the candidate we've all been waiting for.
Generally speaking, right-wing talking points tend to be more easily summarized than left-wing ones. Take, for example, a typical view of the war in Iraq:
From the left: "We have reached a point where there is no military solution in Iraq. Our troops have been called upon to serve much longer and harder than anyone would have expected, but they've hit a wall. At best, they can only prevent the situation from degenerating further. Iraq needs to resolve its own internal affairs, and we've seen the folly of trying to hand them freedom and democracy on a silver platter. We need to begin an orderly, phased withdrawal of our military so that they can be redeployed to areas of greater concern, like Afghanistan, or simply held in reserve to respond effectively to new threats as they present themselves. Also, in a time of economic hardship, we cannot afford to continue spending billions upon billions of dollars in a war of attrition."
From the right: "Why do you hate America so much?"
The current political discourse is so full of trivial, "gotcha" moments that it's impossible to have a substantive discussion on the issues. Only in a shallow political environment such as ours could a war hero like Max Cleland be defeated in an election because he was tarred as unpatriotic. I don't know if Obama can change that, but he's the only presidential candidate who's willing to try and talk about Really Big Things, instead of lapel flag pins and bowling scores.
So is it any wonder that smart, lefty types want to see the smart, lefty guy become the next president, instead of the also-smart woman who's not as lefty and has deliberately tried to lower the tone of the campaign by perpetuating the same "gotcha" politics that she's complained about so often in the past?