Why I support Barack OBAMA (in 450 words)

Barack OBAMA offers the people of the United States our best opportunity to rejoin the world in a positive and constructive manner. That’s the primary reason I support him as our next President.

We have so much to offer one another and people everywhere on our shared planet. At home, we can demonstrate once again how much we care about education, how much we can do to improve our environment, how well we can take care of one another, and how fully we can respect the rights and liberties of all. Abroad, we can help others first by showing how we can do these things so much better within our own country, and we can join with those who admire us - and those who do not - to solve problems, to pursue opportunities, and to add at least a little to the lives of so many.

Senator OBAMA brings to the task a perspective that is informed by a young lifetime of diverse experiences. He knows how a different part of the world looks when seen through the eyes of a young person; he knows what it is like to have a real family connection to another place in another land with good people. And he has been through the rigors of a family in the US that has schooled him in love and distance. The Senator has given much already to the people with whom he has worked, and knows, above all, how critically important it is to bring people together. For me, he reflects in so many ways the USA that I salute.

I believe we will see initiatives in his administration that we never have seen in the past. There will be receptiveness to new and different ways of solving our shared problems and new approaches to advancing opportunities for the entire world. I think he will help us better accept the need to compromise, whether we are dealing with terrorists or with agricultural subsidies.

We can do this, as he might say, and I believe we are seeing the birth of inspired leadership for the United States that we need so desperately. Ask yourself, just for example, how you would have handled all of the diversionary attention on Senator OBAMA’s pastor. I believe he did the right thing, trying to solve a problem constructively and, as we all do sometimes, finding himself unable to do so, resolving the problem in another way. That’s the approach I am confident that President OBAMA will take in dealing with the infinitely more important challenges that will greet him on 20 January 2009.

When we "hire" a President, good judgment and honesty top the criteria I believe most important. We have seen enough of Senator OBAMA's commitment to these principles to give me full confidence in him, and for me to give him my vote.