It's no big shock, since Clinton is the Times' home state senator. The editorial focuses on her command of policy details and the experience she amassed as First Lady and Senator. It doesn't grapple with claims of Obama's greater appeal to Independents and Republicans in a general election, except to mention that Clinton did very will winning over upstate New York conservatives during her first run for the Senate. And it says Clinton's original support for the war is less important than her plan to bring the troops home. It also commends her for building strong relationships with the military. Key excerpt:The sense of possibility, of a generational shift, rouses Mr. Obama’s audiences and not just through rhetorical flourishes. He shows voters that he understands how much they hunger for a break with the Bush years, for leadership and vision and true bipartisanship. We hunger for that, too. But we need more specifics to go with his amorphous promise of a new governing majority, a clearer sense of how he would govern.The potential upside of a great Obama presidency is enticing, but this country faces huge problems, and will no doubt be facing more that we can’t foresee. The next president needs to start immediately on challenges that will require concrete solutions, resolve, and the ability to make government work. Mrs. Clinton is more qualified, right now, to be president.Onto McCain. Thankfully, the first sentence of the editorial doesn't pull any punches: "We have strong disagreements with all the Republicans running for president." The piece goes on to praise McCain's stances on campaign finance reform, torture, and global warming, while criticizing his short-sighted view of the Iraq war and his pander to the right on reproductive rights and gay marriage. But the best part of this editorial is its panning of Rudy Giuliani, now an also-ran. Key excerpt:
The real Mr. Giuliani, whom many New Yorkers came to know and mistrust, is a narrow, obsessively secretive, vindictive man who saw no need to limit police power. Racial polarization was as much a legacy of his tenure as the rebirth of Times Square.Mr. Giuliani’s arrogance and bad judgment are breathtaking. When he claims fiscal prudence, we remember how he ran through surpluses without a thought to the inevitable downturn and bequeathed huge deficits to his successor. He fired Police Commissioner William Bratton, the architect of the drop in crime, because he couldn’t share the limelight. He later gave the job to Bernard Kerik, who has now been indicted on fraud and corruption charges.The Rudolph Giuliani of 2008 first shamelessly turned the horror of 9/11 into a lucrative business, with a secret client list, then exploited his city’s and the country’s nightmare to promote his presidential campaign.--Dana Goldstein
