I have Twittered about this, and I feel the need to explain: I think Obama is the candidate for November.

Why Obama:

He’s smart.  Exhausted utterance about fifty-eight states notwithstanding.  At least it isn’t the word “nucular.” Over and over.

He’s black.  This is not a reason, it’s an admission of (a) about freaking time, (b) a new perspective, (c) an ability to pull cultures together that hasn’t been seen yet (not that this is a guarantee).

He’s different.  His last name is neither Bush nor Clinton.

He’s likely learned from the past.  I still maintain that, if you took away Whitewater and Monica Lewinsky, Bill Clinton’s presidency would have been viewed as successful as Reagan’s.  Why?  He didn’t do anything.  “Don’t screw it up” should replace “E Pluribus Unum” on the Presidential Seal – if we can’t have progress, at least don’t break anything.

He’s what the media wants.  A CNN article came out the other day stating that big-ticket purchases have been unaffected during our “recession.”  Nevertheless, the same media touts that recession every day.  Once there is a new Joe in the White House, the media has no one to blame yet (other than the guy who ISN’T there), so the news starts to look cheery again.  And Obama is poised to be the biggest Cult of Personality since Kennedy (the good one, that is).

I don’t know HOW this one has happened – he’s run the cleanest presidential campaign in YEARS.  I realize it’s only the end of June, but you have to give the guy credit – there’s plenty of mud out there to sling, and he hasn’t yet.   I must say, that’s pretty cool.

I desperately wish there were a Libertarian candidate who could win.  And one that attracted normal people (I maintain most people are Libertarians, they just don’t know it) instead of the kooks that come out for real governmental change.  Obama will be a tax-and-spend Democrat.  So are Republicans – they just spend on wildly different things.  Both parties marginalize the middle class, from opposite ends.  I fear the Religious Right.  Anyone who shares the apocalyptic vision put forth by modern Jenko-LaHayist Premillennialism scares me.  Obama, however, seems to me to be a person who can slow the country down and help us get our heads together.  He’ll screw stuff up, he’s human.  That’s why we only give them a lease term of eight years, with the renewal option halfway through.  But the guy just seems like he wants to do good, not milk the Office for all it’s worth.  I think Reagan was the last guy like that.  I believe McCain is the same way, but he’s out of touch, and Obama’s youth creates an image that will serve us better on the modern world stage.  I won’t have an “Obama 2008” sign in my yard (I’d be smothered in my sleep), but I think this is the guy who can do something.