Endorsement: President Barack Obama

Perhaps we're in the minority here at Anyone's Cockatoo but we like - appreciate - President Barack Obama more today than we did four years ago. (And four years ago we were deliriously smitten.)

We like that he never whines despite being handed a Bush-generated house a'fire.

We like that he seems to be thinking constantly about how to make things better for the American people.

We like that he cut out the financial institution middle-men in the student loans system so as to be able to give out more student loans. (Sometimes he'll make a speech on the subject and we think, "What, again with the student loans?" But that's how one gets people out of the poverty / the working class and into the middle class, so good on him.)

We admire him for taking a chance on the auto industry bail-out, and are glad that it paid off for the workers and the country.

We admire him for (1) realizing that it isn't right that people - Americans - go bankrupt and/or die because of our insurance company-dictated healthcare system and (2) fighting with every ounce of muscle to get the Affordable Health Care Act passed and signed into law. BFD, indeed!

Again, we like that he never whines, despite the insane, racist, dog whistles and direct attacks he's been subjected to. A lesser man would not have handled the nonsense with such grace. Particulary egregious is the oddly-coiffed New York man demanding proof of the President's academic records, passport records, etc. It puts us in mind of the publisher who demanded that the black abolitionist get a white man to vouch for the authenticity of his book.

We like how comfortable PBO is in his skin - whether with world leaders, grieving townspeople, or the NBA champs, PBO always strikes the right tone.

Michelle Obama.

We like how he incarnates the best of this country, this experiment in democracy. A smart, hard-working young man with a non-cookie cutter background gets to be POTUS. And we're all the better for it.

We're moving in the right direction and he clearly deserves a second term.

Would just ask in the second term that he ools-it-cay with the ones-dray - the targets can't be worth the cost of civilians; stand up to the rat bastards at the NRA; and for the love of God, sign some executive order only allowing public financing of campaigns - and no televisions ads.

And here's the punchline about PBO: For all of the insinuations of his otherness, his supposed exoticism, at the end of the day do you know what he his? With those exquisite manners, the self-deprecation, the work ethic, the sincerity? HE'S A MID-WESTERNER. Yes, his father was from Africa, and yes, he happened to have lived in Hawaii and Indonesia. But his character - the content of his character - is that of a plain, ol' mid-westerner. You know, the good folks Fox News commentators claim to adore but, it turns out, don't know one when they see one.