[Link via Lori-Lyn:] The Post-Dispatch has issued a ringing endorsement of Obama. This part in particular deserves quoting, as it echoes a point I heard a couple friends at church making early this year - one that became a major reason I chose to back him):

A presidency is defined less by what happens in the Oval Office than by what is done by the more than 3,000 men and women the president appoints to government office. Only 600 of them are subject to Senate approval. The rest serve at the pleasure of the president.

We have little doubt that Mr. Obama’s appointees would bring a level of competence, compassion and intellectual achievement to the executive branch that hasn’t been seen since the New Frontier. He has energized a new generation of Americans who would put the concept of service back in "public service."...

The idea that 3,000 bright, dedicated and accomplished Americans would be joining the Obama administration to serve the public — as opposed to padding their resumés or shilling for the corporate interests they’re sworn to oversee — is reassuring. That they would be serving a president who actually would listen to them is staggering.

And they had this to say about McCain:

He even shrank from his own campaign slogan, "Country First," by selecting the least qualified running mate since the Swedenborgian shipbuilder Arthur Sewall ran as William Jennings Bryan's No. 2 in 1896.

Ouch!

On the same page, there's a link to an post by Eddie Roth titled My Sister the Cop, where he lifts up the fact that the current chief of police in St. Louis credits his sister's choice of career (she's another officer) as the reason he became interested in law enforcement.