The Edwards endorsement hopefully will help push Hillary towards withdrawing from the race. Unlikely, I know, but I can dream, right?

My attempt to research and make a post about each of Democratic primary candidates died pretty quickly, so I never got to Obama. That’s who I’ve been leaning towards since early in the race and who I’m fully supporting at this point.

There’s plenty to like about him and his policies. His stance on different technology issues is excellent: government transparency by putting more information online, a CTO for the government, increased funding for scientific research, improving broadband infrastructure, more funding for clean energy research (rather than just emissions caps), etc. It’s solid stuff all around and his campaign has demonstrated that they understand how to use technology to great effect with the fund raising machine they’ve created. On foreign policy he’s not perfect (no candidate is), but he’s pretty close. This is a good assessment of our current situation:

The President would have us believe that every bomb in Baghdad is part of al Qaeda’s war against us, not an Iraqi civil war. He elevates al Qaeda in Iraq — which didn’t exist before our invasion — and overlooks the people who hit us on 9/11, who are training new recruits in Pakistan. He lumps together groups with very different goals: al Qaeda and Iran, Shiite militias and Sunni insurgents. He confuses our mission.

And worse — he is fighting the war the terrorists want us to fight. Bin Ladin and his allies know they cannot defeat us on the field of battle or in a genuine battle of ideas. But they can provoke the reaction we’ve seen in Iraq: a misguided invasion of a Muslim country that sparks new insurgencies, ties down our military, busts our budgets, increases the pool of terrorist recruits, alienates America, gives democracy a bad name, and prompts the American people to question our engagement in the world.

By refusing to end the war in Iraq, President Bush is giving the terrorists what they really want, and what the Congress voted to give them in 2002: a U.S. occupation of undetermined length, at undetermined cost, with undetermined consequences.

What Obama lists as what he’s going to do are all good steps, but I don’t think they address the real root of al Qaeda’s appeal: American troops in the Middle East. However, his approach is progress and will keep us far safer than the McCain/Bush approach of perpetual war.

That’s my quick brief on why I like him. Obviously, he’s a politician and he’s promised more than he can deliver. Some of his stances are annoying or just fluff. But he’s not just the lesser of two evils, either. I think he’s actually a good candidate.