NOTHING we have seen in the three weeks since we made our recommendations for the New Hampshire primary has changed our view that Barack Obama and John McCain are the best presidential candidates in their respective parties. The Globe endorses their bids in the nation's first primary today. We hope the famously discerning New Hampshire voters agree.
Republican McCain and Democrat Obama are, of course, from different ends of the political spectrum, and they differ on critical issues, from the Iraq war to abortion rights. But one thing they have in common is consistency of vision. Unlike some of the other candidates, who seem extruded from a mold at a plastics factory, McCain and Obama are genuinely what they present themselves to be. No wonder they both appeal so strongly to political independents.
Although he has spent 25 years in Congress, much of McCain's career has been at odds with Washington insiders. He has pushed campaign finance reform, fought the tobacco lobby, and sponsored bills to regulate HMOs. He is a co-sponsor of legislation to reduce carbon emissions. He is ringingly clear that waterboarding is torture, and has derided the Bush administration's efforts to pretend otherwise. He says what he thinks is right, not what is popular.
McCain supports the ongoing "surge" in Iraq but was critical early on of Donald Rumsfeld's management of the war. As a Vietnam veteran who spent five years as a prisoner of war, his credibility on military issues is high. Voters may disagree with his policies, but few doubt his sincerity.
Obama, for his part, clearly represents a new way of thinking about the role of government and politics. He is less beholden to the special interests that rule Washington. His opponents, he jokes, say he needs to "steep" in Washington long enough "to boil all the hope out" of him. He does not shrink from his emphasis on hope, which some dismiss as gauzy and unspecific. Rather, he says, it is precisely hope that animates political action, whether that be the fight for women's suffrage or rights for workers or minorities. A brilliant student and law professor who has taught the Constitution, he will work to repair the damage to the nation's founding ideals.
Obama also represents the best chance to reset America's reputation in the world. He was raised in the dynamic international societies of Hawaii and Indonesia, and sees conflict through a modern, complex lens. He has worked hard for nuclear nonproliferation and opposed the Iraq war from the start. In the litany of international challenges, he is the only candidate consistently mentioning the genocide in Darfur.
The United States has been badly served by a brand of politics that succeeds by drawing lines of division among its people. Both Barack Obama and John McCain would erase those lines and bring the country together.
