Two Pennsylvanians on their choices for president

Teresa Heinz Kerry

is chairman of the

Heinz Family Philanthropies

There is nothing like being in the center of the storm. And that is where Pennsylvania is today, at the center of our country's economic struggles and the pressures of a broken trade policy and a health-care system that's come undone, and at the center of the struggle between two candidates eager to make history by winning the Democratic Party's nomination for president of the United States.

I was privileged to weather a similar political storm with my husband, Sen. John Kerry, in 2004. Despite the trials and challenges, I found there is nothing quite like a presidential campaign to renew one's pride and faith in the people of our country and to better understand the hope that our nation offers to the world.

It is up to our state to make a choice, to deliver a leader who can meet today's struggles by fulfilling America's great offer of hope and pride. I believe that choice should be Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois.

I have been involved in Pennsylvania politics and our philanthropic community for almost four decades now.

With my first husband, the late Sen. John Heinz, I first learned about the bold hopes and diverse needs of the millions of hardworking people who live here as we traveled the back roads and big cities of the commonwealth.

And in Pennsylvania's farmhouses and union halls and church basements I heard the same kind of stories that Obama heard firsthand working as a community organizer on Chicago's South Side - stories of people who didn't ask for much but believed that with a little help and a lot of work they could live out the American Dream. That's the "audacity of hope" that Obama knows so well.

But there's more to Obama than hope. There's a practical approach to economic recovery. It starts with a tax cut of up to $1,000 for middle-class families, not millionaires. He believes there can be no "free" trade without fair trade. He's committed to fixing NAFTA.

Obama's universal health-care plan will first cover every child in America, and make sure every family can receive the same kind of affordable, high-quality insurance he and I both have - the great health care that members of Congress give themselves and their families.

He'll simplify paperwork throughout the health-care system and ensure that no family can be turned down, regardless of preexisting conditions.

And Obama wants more. He wants the Port of Philadelphia to be a vibrant export hub for the green technologies that will lessen our dependence on foreign oil, combat global warming, and create not only high-tech, high-wage jobs but also all the good manufacturing jobs that will follow.

He will fight for increased federal investment in research, in education and training, and workforce development so we not only save jobs before they go overseas but also create thousands of good new ones.

The life Obama has lived and his passion for people make him the right choice for all of us worried about bringing a broader prosperity back to Pennsylvania - and for those of us who yearn for leadership that builds a broad coalition of supporters that transcends party lines for our common good.

I am also eager for a leader who will keep our homeland secure while upholding the high ideals on which this country was founded. He will be a president who has the courage and the confidence to stand behind the tough decisions, and a leader with the judgment to seek the advice of others, and change course when change is required. He knows that our values aren't a weakness in the struggle against terror - they're a strength.

Obama will be a transformative leader and Pennsylvania needs a president who knows that our hopes, not our fears, make America strong. We need a president who will give us our optimism back.

How appropriate it would be if the state that gave us our Constitution and the city that houses the Liberty Bell were to choose a brilliant young leader and propel America - in words Obama chose in his epochal speech last month - "toward a more perfect union."