Charlotte Observer, Louisville Courier-Journal endorse Obama

http://www.charlotte.com/opinion/story/608888.html

Nominating Sen. Obama would send a powerful message to the world. He's the son of a white mother from Kansas and an absent father from Kenya. His personal story would make it plain that America is changing for the better. His appreciation of the need for international cooperation is a welcome change from the Bush administration's know-it-all, go-it-alone tendencies.

Many N.C. Democratic leaders recognize his strengths. State Treasurer Richard Moore and Lt. Gov. Bev Perdue, the party's leading candidates for governor, have endorsed him. So have U.S. Reps. David Price, Mel Watt and G.K. Butterfield as well as Harvey Gantt, a former Charlotte mayor; Jim Phillips Jr., a Greensboro lawyer who chairs the UNC Board of Governors; and state Senate majority leader Tony Rand of Fayetteville.

Early in the campaign, Sen. Obama said, "We want a politics that reflects our best values. We want a politics that reflects our core decency, a politics that is based on a simple premise that we stand and fall together."

Yes, we do.

http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080504/OPINION01/805040412

And Americans have responded, with a surge in voting and registration.

Sen. Barack Obama referred to that excitement in a teleconference interview last week with this newspaper's editorial board. "We were always the longshot," he said. "The fact we've done so well speaks to the hunger of the American people for a different message and a different direction."

We agree, and we also believe that Sen. Obama is the Democratic candidate better equipped to restore Americans' hope for the future and to bring change to Washington.

For that reason, we endorse Sen. Obama in Tuesday's Indiana primary and in the May 20 contest in Kentucky.