Barack Obama finally tells us what we need to hear. That doesn’t mean that this is the entire argument for voting Obama versus Clinton, but it is a compelling argument to me. His claim, as seen here in a Washington Post article, is that Hillary is too much a lightning rod for partisan divisiveness in this country. No, it isn’t her fault, but nevertheless it is baggage she is carrying. And I think we need to pay attention to Barack Obama on this one.

MANCHESTER, N.H., Aug. 14 — Drawing a sharp contrast with Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, his main rival for the Democratic presidential nomination, Sen. Barack Obama said in an interview that he has the capacity she may lack to unify the country and move it out of what he called “ideological gridlock.”

“I think it is fair to say that I believe I can bring the country together more effectively than she can,” Obama said. “I will add, by the way, that is not entirely a problem of her making. Some of those battles in the ’90s that she went through were the result of some pretty unfair attacks on the Clintons. But that history exists, and so, yes, I believe I can bring the country together in a way she cannot do. If I didn’t believe that, I wouldn’t be running.”

. . .

“Her argument is going to be that ‘I’m the experienced Washington hand,’ and my argument is going to be that we need to change the ways of Washington,” he said. “That’s going to be a good choice for the American people.”

Saying that Bill Clinton’s presidency was good for America, he added: “The question is, moving forward, looking towards the future, is it sufficient just to change political parties, or do we need a more fundamental change in how business is done in Washington . . .? Do we need to break out of some of the ideological battles that we fought during the ’90s that were really extensions of battles we fought since the ’60s?”

This isn’t about whether Hillary is right or wrong on any number of issues. It isn’t even about whether she can put together coalitions that will be able to effectively run our federal government. It’s about how we can get beyond the divisiveness that started during the Clinton Administration and continued with the Bush Administration. We just don’t need that ugly partisanship anymore. This isn’t about whether Democrats are right, Hillary among them, and whether Republicans are hopelessly incompetent. It’s about whether we need this partisanship anymore. Obama is right about that. Hillary is the magnet for ugly partisanship. That isn’t her fault, really. It’s just that the Republicans have a thing for Hillary, and whether it is that she’s Bill’s wife or that there’s some kind of misogyny at work doesn’t matter. She’s a lightning rod. Barack Obama is enough of an outsider that he doesn’t carry much of that baggage of partisanship at all.

That said, if she wins the nomination I’ll vote for Hillary. She’s far and away a better choice for our country than any Republican out there. But for our future political health, we should be thinking long and hard about putting in a guy like Barack Obama, who carries very little of the baggage from the partisan past.