Look forward to reading the book and thanks! Critical to the success of any political change is the generational change that propels the political change. Barack Obama, like John F. Kennedy in his day, is among the leaders of a new generation. Obama represents a new way of thinking. While a lawyer, Obama is likely more mediator than litigator, more prone to conciliation than confrontation, more "us" than "us vs. them." In foreign policy, a President Obama would likely recognize that the Cold War ended around 20 years ago. The Cold War was between the United States and the Soviet Union. Now, the U.S. must deal with a world featuring many places where power resides, such as China, North Korea, Lebanon, Venezuela and many more. Obama probably realizes that economic and diplomatic pressure are these days as effective as armed invasion. Terrorism, which wears no uniform and knows no national borders, is best fought with education and a battle for hearts-and-minds. He'd be our first non-WASP (White Anglo Saxon Protestant) president. Barack Obama, as a person of color, would lessen the resistance to America that is now found in South America, Africa and Asia. John McCain, however, seems stuck with a Cold War mentality of attack-attack-attack. Domestically, Barack would lead a multi-cultural and multi-racial society. He's the first African-American politician of the post-Civil Rights era. He is simply too young to have marched with Martin or strutted with Stokely. Barack grew up in a mostly integrated society, not a largely segregated one. His domestic agenda would be far more inclusionary and participatory than any that have gone before. He, much moreso than McCain, would call on us to rise up, help out and pitch in. Think outside the box and go into the community of your choice. George Herbert Walker Bush's "A thousand points of light" may be re-lit. McCain seems quite comfortable with the tried-and-true, the old ways being the best ways. A Barack Obama presidency? As Jack Nicholson would say, "Auspicious beginnings." But that is then and this is now. Let's not forget we got to first win an election!
