The New Yorker’s Endorsement of Obama (in 500 Words or Less)

We read the venerable magazine's epic, 3,600-word article so you don't have to.

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“The morning was cold and the sky was bright,” a recent New Yorker editorial reminisces. Aretha Franklin was there. Yo-Yo Ma was there. And you. And you. And you were there, too.

This wasn’t Dorothy awaking from her fever dream of Oz; but rather an epic, 3,600-word endorsement of Barack Obama by the New Yorker’s editorial staff, which takes up the entire ‘The Talk of the Town’ section of the venerable magazine’s current issue. The article takes us back to January 20, 2009, the day America welcomed its first black president. “That night, after the inaugural balls, President Obama and his wife and their daughters slept at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, a white house built by black men, slaves of West African heritage,” the editors wrote.

(MORE: Why the Obama Campaign Is (Still) So Confident About Beating Romney)

Bottom line: It wasn’t a dream. And while some of Barack Obama’s first term wasn’t very nice (think Guantanamo, drone attacks, lack of action on climate change), most of it was beautiful. The editors praise Obama for renewing the “honor of the office he holds” through “ambitious legislative, social, and foreign-policy successes,” including his handling of the economic crisis and his salvation of the auto industry. They admire the Commander in Chief for being the “least crazy of Presidents, the least erratic and unpredictable” and for maintaining an “inspirational, yet formal, cool, hyper-rational” temperament. The opposition, on the other hand, represents “a constricted and backward-looking vision of America,” and its candidate, Mitt Romney, is beholden to a party “dominated by those who despise government and see no value in public efforts.”

(MORE: Obama and Romney May Talk Peace, but They’re Ready for Another War)

Thus, conclude the magazine’s editors, “the reëlection of Barack Obama is a matter of great urgency.”

In response to the endorsement, “a guy” from the Romney-Ryan campaign told Politico, “If you spell reelection with an umlaut, odds are your endorsement will go for Obama.”

Joke’s on you, Romney guy — that grammar device is actually a diaeresis.

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