Kingmaker

Stephen King has come out for Obama. Not much of a story, but his reasons are illustrative of many backers: "Obama has the least baggage of the two and is willing to try new things. It wouldn't be business as usual. Also it would do wonders for us in the world community to have a black man in the White House."

So his first main reason is change--no special direction to the change, just change, because that's what we need.

Second, our standing in the world. Well, even if others are bowled over by the U.S. electing a black man (because that's one less lie they can tell about us), I doubt it makes a difference. In fact, this argument is never much good. Some presidents may be better in dealing with other nations (though it's extremely hard to guess which ones will), but you generally aren't going to get nations to act against their own interest. More important, what counts most is the President doing what's right for his country, not pleasing other countries. (As I've noted before, the argument that we look bad in front of other nations is a smokescreen. If what we're doing is right and others disagree, it's a p.r. problem and we should fix it, not change our ways. If what we're doing is wrong, then we should stop it no matter how others feel. And if something becomes wrong merely because France disapproves, then we're in serious trouble no matter what.)

(I hope it isn't too unfair to note King seems to have a problem creating convincing black people in his work. They always seems to be at arm's length--magical, mysterious people who interact with the real world, the white world.)