James's comments on this article:

The indispensable Rosa Brooks has another excellent piece.  Some of you have emailed me with questions about 1) Obama's experience and 2) legislative accomplishments.  Brooks takes those on directly, as well as the issue of judgment, which for me is the most important of all.

Key excerpts:

Obama has good judgment, which trumps mere experience every time. On Iran, he called for engagement and a toning down of bellicose rhetoric. Clinton was instead fanning the flames by voting for an amendment favored by the Bush administration that called the Iranian Revolutionary Guard a terrorist organization. Obama's judgment was vindicated when the National Intelligence Estimate asserted that Iran had already stopped its nuclear weapons program. On Pakistan, Obama consistently raised questions about the unqualified U.S. support for Pervez Musharraf -- and was vindicated again as it became increasingly clear that Musharraf was neither a democrat nor a reliable U.S. ally against extremism.

Obama has solid legislative accomplishments under his belt too.

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Obamania in action

His good judgment and experience are winning over party stalwarts.

Rosa Brooks, LA Times

http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/asection/la-oe-brooks31jan31,0,4257994,print.column

January 31, 2008

Is endorsing Barack Obama the new cool? Not long ago, Hillary Rodham Clinton was the seemingly inevitable front-runner for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination. Obama was the insurgent. He was pulling in young voters, independents and new voters, but he lacked the blessing of the party's heavyweights.