Senator Obama for President
Kenneth R. "Ken" Plum
 
        Few if any will be surprised to know that I endorse Senator Barack Obama for election to President of the United States of America.  After all, I am a lifelong Democrat, former chair of the Democratic Party of Virginia, and candidate for elective office as a Democrat nearly twenty times.  I have not always endorsed every Democratic candidate for elective office, however.  My challenge in endorsing Senator Obama and his running mate Senator Joe Biden is to adequately convey to voters the high level of enthusiasm and strong conviction I have in endorsing them.
 
        As a teenager my interest in politics and government was heightened when I stood in the snow at the United States Capitol in January of 1961 and heard President John F. Kennedy challenge the American people:  Ask not what your country can do for you but what you can do for your country.  His daughter Caroline Kennedy observed at the Democratic Convention that many people of my generation who were inspired by her father are likewise inspired by Senator Barack Obama.  She could not have been more correct.  The clarion call for change to meet the challenges of a faltering economy, attention to rebuilding America's image abroad, and hope for a better tomorrow inspire me and members of my generation as it does young people.
 
        I agree with retired General Colin Powell that Senator Obama is a "transformational" figure who would "electrify our country and the world."  General Powell also pointed out in his appearance on "Meet the Press" that Obama "has given us a more inclusive, broader reach into the needs and aspirations of our people."
 
        New Yorker magazine (October 13, 2008) expressed better than I ever could the meaning of an Obama election victory.  "It could not help but say something encouraging, even exhilarating about the country, about its dedication to tolerance and inclusiveness, about its fidelity, after all, to the values it proclaims in its textbooks.  At a moment of economic calamity, international perplexity, political failure, and battered morale, America needs both uplift and realism, both change and steadiness.  It needs a leader temperamentally, intellectually, and emotionally attuned to the complexities of our troubled globe.  That leader's name is Barack Obama."
 
        If you have questions about issues, please email me at kenplum@aol.com.  If you have questions as to your voting place, go to www.fairfaxcounty.gov/eb.  Polls open at 6:00 a.m. and close at 7:00 p.m. on Tuesday, November 4.  Voter participation will be at record levels.  Go to the polls determined to wait in line as long as it takes to participate in this historic election.  Please vote for Barack Obama.