This week The New Yorker has devoted the entirety of its Talk of the Town section to endorsing Barack Obama for president. This will surprise no one (I'll throw another zinger. Eve Ensler doesn't like the Republicans either!) but it does echo the urgency the New York Times showed in 2004 when took up the entire editorial page endorsing John Kerry.

Setting aside all our separate political persuasions, I ask you, in the immortal words of Ronald Reagan, if " any of us are better off today than we were 4 years ago." I think the answer to that is clear. There is no perfect choice in any election but when headed in the wrong direction, the smart thing to do is change course.

It remains to be seen if Obama is the change he says he is. But I'm more than willing to let him try. And I hope in November, we'll be able to say, as one country and with hope, in the words  of President Gerald Ford that "Our long national nightmare is over."