Obama endorses Darcy Burner!

On behalf of everyone here at NPI, I want to express how absolutely delighted we are today by Barack Obama's endorsement of our hometown House candidate Darcy Burner. We at NPI have been strongly behind her literally for years now, and we're all thrilled to see someone with immense national stature do the same!

Here is the Burner campaign's press release:

Bellevue, WA (September 18) – Senator Barack Obama has enthusiastically endorsed Darcy Burner in her bid for Congress in Washington State’s 8th Congressional District, the Burner campaign announced today.

The Democratic Party’s nominee for president cited Burner’s commitment to helping him bring change to Washington, D.C., as well as her determination to strengthen the American middle class after years of damage caused by the disastrous Bush Republican policies, in making the endorsement.

"The American people want leaders in Congress who are committed to working for change. Darcy Burner will be that sort of leader,” Obama said. “She is tough and determined, and she will stand up for the middle class and work to get our economy moving forward again, and I am proud to support her."

Burner welcomed the endorsement and expressed her own strong support for the candidacy of Senator Obama.

“With our economy hanging on the brink, we need a president with sound judgment and a basic understanding of what it will take to rebuild the middle class and get our country back on the right track. After years of the failed policies of Bush-McCain Republicanism supported by my opponent, we desperately need a change of direction in Washington, D.C.,” Burner said.

“Barack Obama understands what has gone wrong with our economy under the Bush-McCain approach and what we need to do to fix this mess. Now more than ever, we need Sen. Barack Obama as our next president.”

With Darcy's extraordinary policy initiatives on both Iraq, via the Responsible Plan, and on the economy, via her Putting the Middle Class First economic plan, she has single-handedly altered the national dialogue on those subjects. Senator Obama and his campaign, indeed, have adopted Darcy's language and framing of the Iraq issue. So when you hear Senator Obama calling for a responsible end to the war in Iraq, you have Darcy Burner to thank.

That, fellow Washingtonians, is leadership. That is what it means to represent the values of your constituency. (There's a reason it's called the House of Representatives and the "people's house", after all).

That is what we who live in the 8th district have been missing these last years while our house seat occupied by empty suit Dave Reichert.

For helping Obama's campaign find the winning frame on what is undoubtedly the most important international concern of our day, she has certainly earned this endorsement. All of us at NPI thank Senator Obama for recognizing Darcy for the upcoming political talent that she is, and we all hope that an Obama administration will heed her counsel on these and many other issues.