Finally, and hopefully not too late

It appears like Barack Obama is going to be the Democratic nominee for President. After the longest primary campaign in the history of presidential politics, the selection of our next President isn't that far off. The Democrats began this campaign with a tremendous advantage due to Bush's enormous blunders over the last 8 years, but as their campaign has become more and more vitriolic, their advantage has begun to dwindle. McCain has had it relatively easy the last few months, comfortably ripping both candidates, while the Democrats rip each other instead of responding to McCain.

In spite of McCain's comfortable last few months, most national polls still give Obama a small advantage in the general election, but the enormous discontent with the Republicans has waned somewhat, making this general election more unpredictable. McCain has been able to flip-flop on all sorts of issues the last few months, and hopefully with some attention, those changes of heart will be called what they are--political pandering, not sincere changes that are better for the country. Ultimately, I see Obama beating McCain and becoming our next President--something that will be great for our country and it will put a leader in office who has the intelligence and the people skills to help repair our damaged relations with the rest of the world.

Obama may lack years of experience in Washington like McCain, but his intelligence and wisdom will play a greater role in how he governs than any amount of experience could. As we have seen so clearly from President Bush, choosing the right people to help run an administration is the most important thing a President can do. If Bush had chosen to rely on Colin Powell instead of Cheney and Rumsfeld, he may be viewed as a great President instead of a pathetic one. Obama may be trendy, and he may be garnering votes because of the emotion he inspires in people, but he has shown good judgement throughout he short political career. The fact that he picked the right people to help him run a campaign that was good enough to defeat the Clinton machine shows high levels of wisdom in choosing good people to work with.

Electing a black man to be our President is an enormous event and one that would have seemed unimaginable 50 years ago, even 20, but it should provide a path for healing the racial tensions that are still very existant in this country. So hopefully, Obama's nomination by the Democrats isn't too late and he gets the chance to be our next President.