During eight years of Republican rule in the White House under President Bush, the United States has suffered badly. It is a county that is wounded economically, less secure militarily, and less respected around the world. And its constitutional guarantees have seldom been as tattered.

The next president will immediately face difficult challenges. But fortunately for us, our choice for president on Tuesday isn't difficult at all. It is with enthusiasm that we endorse Barack Obama.

We are not, however, interested in singing to the Democratic Party choir here. Instead, we will show the many ways in which Obama actually is a better choice than John McCain.

McCain has become a very different candidate since winning the primary race. Before, he was against Bush's tax cuts for the very wealthy. Today he wants to make them permanent. He once had a thoughtful immigration reform package. Now he just talks border controls. He once concerned himself with climate change. Now the topic has disappeared in favor of "drill, baby, drill." Having been tortured himself, he once was strongly against torture by the United States. Now he supports Bush's veto of legislation that would have banned torture by U.S. intelligence agencies.

A presidential campaign is a crucible, and McCain has failed the test. Note his erratic behavior at the beginning of the economic meltdown -- first the economy was sound, then he was going to suspend his campaign to deal with the crisis, then, well, perhaps he wouldn't suspend it. And what of his alarming running mate pick -- perhaps the most important decision a presidential candidate can make? In an attempt to bolster his Republican base, McCain risked putting an unqualified Sarah Palin a heartbeat from the presidency.

McCain has kept switching focus, and his campaign has degenerated into name calling. Obama is a Muslim! He's a Communist! He pals around with terrorists! Obama, subjected to such scurrilous attacks, calmly smiles. Notice that he hasn't responded in kind. No references to the Keating five, Palin's record, McCain's treatment of his first wife. Obama is above that sort of thing. Isn't it time we had a president who is?

Indeed, Obama has had two long, tough years of campaigning in which to stumble. He hasn't done it. His campaign has been a model of sound management, his advisers the cream of the crop. He isn't fighting battles of the past, obsessing on some professor who was a student SDS leader before most Americans were born, but instead is asking us to look to the future, taking responsibility for the nation's problems now.

Obama has called for tax reform that isn't about redistributing wealth, but merely returning to some level of fairness. Average Joe taxpayer has been losing ground under the Republicans, while the very rich have gotten every break. McCain talks about cutting taxes, but those cuts would mostly benefit the wealthiest 1 percent of Americans.

At a time when this country's defense is spread seriously thin, Obama recognizes that we are in danger of losing the war in Afghanistan. He wants us out of Iraq as soon as is responsibly possible. McCain believes that victory in Iraq, whatever that might mean, must remain the goal.

McCain and Obama each have plenty of tough talk on terrorism, and each pledges to repair our alliances in the world, but it is Obama who most stresses diplomacy, a concept that seems rather foreign to the current administration.

As, of course, have been civil liberties and rule of law, constantly under siege since 9-11. While Obama has been vocal about correcting Bush's excesses, McCain has had little to say about the matter. Nor has he said much about Bush's war on science, or on the separation of powers.

It is Obama's ability and willingness to listen that truly mark his campaign. McCain's forces have been quick to mock him for having been a community organizer. But it is just such an endeavor, undertaken by a young Harvard Law School graduate without money or power, that says volumes about him. Obama was willing to work with everyone, liberal and conservative, rich and poor, to improve the quality of life in his South Chicago community. Is there a better preparation to reunite a divided and broken country? It sure beats Palin calling Republican-leaning states "pro-America."

Of course the election of the country's first black president would be a powerful statement that America is maturing, striving to put racism behind us at last. And it reveals a great deal about Obama's courage. But the stakes here have little to do with color and everything to do with steering this country in a new direction. The choice is more of the same or the kind of change that Obama offers -- the honest, savvy leadership we so need at this troubled time.