An insightful perspective on the potential of Obama's candidacy to end the culture wars that are crippling our nation. The author argues thoughtfully that the deep political divisions within our country may pose a greater risk to our long-term security than most other threats. This article provides good factual evidence and historical context to back its points. Highly recommended. My favorite quote: "At a time when America’s estrangement from the world risks tipping into dangerous imbalance, when a country at war with lethal enemies is also increasingly at war with itself, when humankind’s spiritual yearnings veer between an excess of certainty and an inability to believe anything at all, and when sectarian and racial ... More »

This is good journalism because of its scope. It envelopes a wide range of issues from a very broad perspective. The sources are mostly Obama's books and speeches; with some input from other candidates. The conclusions by the author are so vast that one is hard pressed to challenge them from one reading. What lends a sense of balance from a mind made up is in the last few paragraphs. Indeed one can reflect and decide that the alternatives provided to his conclusions are valid. I would have to study the piece in the context of more background than I have absorbed to date. I can see it as a very good point of departure for serious study of the candidacies in the coming months.

To say I am no fan of Andrew Sullivan is an understatement. Never the less, this piece is insightful and thought provoking. Highly recommended.

While clearly written from an editorial position of support for Obama, the author also outlines the challenges in his candidacy and for Obama as president. But the article focuses on a salient point: after fourteen plus years of partisan divisiveness, including six years during which American credibility has suffered internationally, could an Obama presidency be the best hope for restoring civil discourse and collaboration both within America and globally? Furthermore, could an Obama presidency diffuse some of the anti-American zeal that gives cover to terrorism? This article in some ways echoes Tom Friedman's premise in his April 18, 2007 column called "Help Wanted." Favorite quotation from the article: 'A brown-skinned man ... More »

For starters, this ends up as an opinion piece supporting Obama and the writing is excellent. Some of the analysis is weakly supported -- e.g., does our national polarization really arise from the Viet Nam era disagreement between those who fought and those who demonstrated? On the other hand, the conclusion that Obama is less polarizing than Clinton jibes with what I have observed. But in the final analysis, what one thinks of this piece will depend on what one thinks of our current international situation. If one supports Bush's objectives and actions as noble, he will dismiss this as swill. On the other hand, one who is fed up with the Bush administration's objectives and actions will find this piece interesting if not ... More »

An argument for Obama, this piece does not delve into the political details that separate him from other candidates, but instead presents a case for why only Obama can bring about the unity to bridge this nation.

Passionate but prolix, this article presents an effective--if long-winded--argument for why Barack Obama is the only candidate who can bridge the cultural divides widening in American society. I could have wished Sullivan had gotten to the point a lot more quickly about what those divides are and how they formed. But I can't deny the power of his prose.

This opinion article is well written. But it has limited journalistic merit because of a lack of knowledge of history on the part of the author. It is a sales job for one of the candidates for President, not a balanced and well-informed analysis. The candidate that the author favors has had no executive experience and thus cannot be imagined as sufficiently experienced to handle the job of President. And the political circles the author goes in may be polarized, but the general public is not, especially when compared with the period before and around the Civil War or before the two World Wars. He may think that because Ann Coulter writes as wildly as he does that she has influence on the Republican Party but that simply isn't accurate.

Best article ever on the reasons why Obama is the candidate to vote for!! Mr. Sullivan has done an excellent job of seeing exactly what is needed for this country and why and why, most of all, Obama is the only candidate who can do it.

An excellent appraisal of the situation and the single major candidate that might just possibly be able to accomplish the compromises necessary to reach a solution. God bless America!

It is - in a sense - good journalism. It's journalism in the sense that this story is NOT the same thing as the garbage that so many of those who call themselves journalists these days produce - a product most of them are pushing because their wealthy corporate owners see Clinton vs Giuliani as the best bloodsport for ratings/circulation in 2008. This story is journalism because - while it may already state things that most of us know - it frames the argument more fully, instead of just saying "Hillary isn't electable." Is it textbook "good journalism"? Hardly. But when so much of the ramblings of so-called journalists these days are simply words designed to keep them employed by their right-wing leaning corporate masters, it's ... More »

This is more analysis and commentary than journalistic reportage, but it is worth reading and thinking about. This is a complex analysis that unaccountably flits past key interludes such as the 2000 and 2004 elections, of all things, not to mention 9/11, but which does point to some fundamental factors governing the national cultural and political bifurcation, bringing religion and belief, identity and history into focus in a way too few analyses do. More sense of how fully Obama's identity is felt among the majority of voters would be useful; it seems to me that most people still have very little idea of who Obama is. He is an image, as Sullivan points out, and images do matter. For taking us beyond the image, we can thank the ... More »

The author takes facts and uses them to support his thesis. While his writing is ragged in places - repeats over and over about the Baby Boomers' divisions - his Obama points and his concluding paragraphs are intelligent, encouraging, and they illustrate extraordinary, creative, insightful thinking: a kind of thinking that has been absent from American journalism for seven years. As far as AP journalistic style is concerned, this isn't it, but for the Atlantic, it's fine.

I'm biased; I'm pro-peace. I happen to believe in what Andrew is saying; but, I couldn't find any Sources:(