Stockton Record recommends Barack Obama

The Stockton Record, widely read in California's San Joaquin county, has recommended Barack Obama today.

Barack Obama: The possibilities of setting a new course

Because the Feb. 5 primary election gives California voters a real chance to impact the presidential nominating process, The Record is breaking precedent by offering its recommendations.

January 27, 2008 6:00 AM

Barack Obama is turning "The Audacity of Hope" into a working title.

The 46-year-old first-term U.S. senator from Illinois is audaciously challenging the Democratic Party establishment in his historic bid to become the country's first black presidential nominee.

With poise and assurance, he's reasserted a visionary agenda of hope, inspiration, dedication and commitment so eloquently expressed in his 2006 book. He's aiming his policies and programs in a new direction, expressing a determination to create unity, inclusiveness and bipartisanship that would make him a formidable contender in the Nov. 4 election.

The schedule for The Record's editorial endorsements for the Feb. 5 primary election:

» Today: John McCain, Republican, and Barack Obama, Democrat, for president

» Monday: State Propositions 91, 92 and 93

» Tuesday: State Propositions 94, 95, 96 and 97

» Wednesday: Measure Q, the Stockton Unified School District's construction bond

Obama already has demonstrated the strength, resiliency and perseverance that leadership requires during his campaign against New York Sen. Hillary Clinton. She's been buttressed by the ongoing popularity of her husband, former President Clinton, and the well-calibrated Democratic machinery he helped construct.

Obama, an interloper who seems to have affronted the Clintons' sense of entitlement, has energized and mobilized young people, independents and first-time voters - expanding and diversifying the party's base while threatening the established protocols.

He's been bold and straightforward about his policies and increasingly defiant when challenged on his basic beliefs. He's tried to be tactful and thoughtful regarding race, attempting to transcend it while competing respectfully - despite some recent bickering - against the first woman to have a viable chance to be president.

On most major issues, Obama differs only marginally from Clinton or former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards.

Unlike them, however, he doesn't need to renunciate or equivocate about the war in Iraq. He opposed the war and didn't have to vote to authorize its funding, as did Clinton and Edwards. He was a state legislator at the time.

Like Clinton, he supports phased withdrawals of U.S. troops - a stark contrast and clear choice in a campaign against a Republican opponent.

Though he lacks foreign policy experience, he's said he'll assemble a team of seasoned specialists to assist him. Decades of experience couldn't prevent the country and its undersized military from being bogged down in the bloody, costly conflict in Iraq since 2003.

Obama, whose father was born in Kenya, supports comprehensive immigration reform and an all-inclusive health care plan. He fits the Democratic demographic when it comes to values issues. He'll have to be forceful as the U.S. economy deteriorates.

It'll require more than audacity and hope to sustain Obama during what could become a personal and polarizing campaign. He'll need to keep his cool, stick to his core beliefs and refrain from demonizing the opposition.

If he does that and stays committed to unifying a badly divided nation, he could end 20 years of Bush-Clinton dominance of the presidency and set a new course for which the majority of Americans have been hoping.