Endorsements demonstrate leadership

Bluefield Daily Telegraph

Sat, May 17 2008

— Recently some have expressed concern for Sen. Rockefeller’s and Rep. Rahall’s endorsements of Sen. Obama.
These folks imply the Senator and Congressman are not politically cautious enough, not sufficiently calculating in their decisions. Indeed.
Instead of waiting to see which direction the political wind will blow, they demonstrated their ability to lead. And this is why we have repeatedly put our faith in them and continue to return them to Washington.
The willingness and ability to lead is particularly important during this primary precisely because the Democratic nomination remains unsettled. West Virginia’s primary votes will be a real factor in this election; it is our duty to be informed, to collect information from a variety of sources and among those sources we rely on our leaders.
It took brave statesmen to take a position opposed to what was the accepted, prevailing notion of the time and deliver us from the shackles of slavery; during Jim Crow it took courageous leaders to decry segregation and lead us as nation from our separate and unequal lives; during this, our time of economic insecurity and war, once again, we need leaders.
Yet, instead of recognizing Rockefeller’s and Rahall’s statesmanship, some perpetuate the politics of the past by characterizing and simplifying the contest between Clinton and Obama as a competition between two political machines.
This representation demonstrates a disconnect from the voters of West Virginia, who care far more about concrete issues and not old-party-boss-machine-style-politics.
The candidates matter. The nominee matters. While it is true that both Clinton and Obama are Democrats, with core Democratic beliefs; one of the candidates has reached hundreds of thousands of previously uninterested Americans and motivated them to participate; has energized those who had grown apathetic with the politics of old; has earned more states, won more of the popular vote and continues to lead in the delegate count.
So, maybe it was, actually, the politically expedient move on the part of Senator Rockefeller and Congressman Rahall to endorse Obama.
Christine Barkey
Princeton, WV