I am only 26 years old and have not experienced many Presidential campaigns. In those I have experienced I have usually only been interested in the general election and not the primaries because the nominee selection process has never been interesting or intriguing to me and it always seems that there hasn't been any real question as to who the nominee is going to be. I remember the first election I ever saw it was 1988 George H.W Bush defeating Michael Dukakis. I was in elementary school I think the first or second grade, I knew nothing about the issues or the candidates I just knew who won and lost. Fast forward to 1992 I was in the 6th grade my country had just come out of Desert Storm the economy was down and Bush was starting to look like he might not have an easy reelection. Bush lost to a Governor from Arkansas named William J. Clinton whom I knew only because he played the sax on the Arsenio Hall show during his campaign and appeared the Rock the Vote on MTV, but that was cool enough for me I was an 11 year old kid happy someone was speaking to me on forums that I watched. Despite all of the scandals that happened in his Administration he is still my favorite President because he is the first one that made an impression on me. The older I have gotten and the more I have learned about his policy and his administration the more I like him. He is to me what JFK was to my parent’s generation.

President Clinton's Administration bought me something else, Hillary Rodham Clinton(HRC) a First Lady who was more involved publicly in an administration than any prior first lady. She was smart, highly educated, well spoken and a passionate advocate. She wrote books, did speaking engagements, and reached out to the public at grassroots level on matters that were important to the public. She took up the causes of children, families and the lower class and ran with it. Anyone who knocks who resume, abilities, contributions or her qualifications is crazy, I think that in 2000 when the Clinton Administration ended everyone new we could see the Clinton family again occupying the White House, making history as the first woman President. That a large percentage of the population even considered that a possibility in the male driven society that we live in is a testament to what people see in her as a person. The truth is she could have probably made a run at the White House without having ever been a Senator but she built her resume and showed people that she was a politician. Being a Senator is not being the President but it allows people to view her judgement on issues and her rationale for decision making and thats an important part of running for President especially when your are going to have to deal with all the craziness of being a woman running for President.

Now after all of that most people probably think that I'm voting for HRC and I'm not, she had my vote until 2004 and the fact that she lost it isn't even a reflection on her. At the DNC convention at the Fleet Center in Boston, MA in 2004 I watched an unknown state legislator from Illinois named Barack Obama captivate myself and a country for 20 minutes (I still keep that speech on my iPod). He was a fresh face with good ideas and oratory skills that reminded me of a Baptist preacher. In January 2005 he took office in the US Senate and the whispers started about whether or not he would or even should run for President.

A lot of the knocks on Senator Obama are true. His resume does lack depth and he does lack some of the leadership experience of his opponents. He has been a Senator for under 4 years and he had 7 years as a state legislator. But the American public has not always voted for experience. George H.W Bush had more experience and a better resume than Bill Clinton. And John Kerry and Al Gore had better track records in better decision making and were definitely more intelligent than George W Bush and still lost. I'm not saying that voting one way or the other is right, just making the point that it hasn't always mattered to the American public. The truth is not matter what your experience sitting in the chair is a whole separate ball game, and while the President has final say the most important thing you do as President is surround yourself with competent and qualified people that will give you good advice. Its why I hope that if Obama wins he finds a place for Hillary Clinton in administration if not as VP then in the Cabinet, and I think he is smart enough to do that. He is a breath of fresh air in politics at a time when the public seems to be tired of seeing the same old faces and he is very inspirational and although words aren't solutions, it should not be overlooked that the power to inspire, and engage the electorate should not be overlooked. I can't remember at time when people were more passionate, engaged, and responsive to the educational process. This is not all because of Obama but he is a large part of it, and I think that is a quality often lacking from the Executive office. Then there is the elephant in the room, he is Black and I will not pretend that the fact that there is a candidate that looks like me doesn't affect my decision. If I didn't think he was qualified his ethnicity wouldn't matter but I do so it does. If it was Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton running I wouldn't vote for them, but Obama I believe will do the job. I'm not sure I ever really believed that an African American would be President and I was pretty sure that we would see a White woman first and we still may but I'm going with Obama because I believe that he will be best for the country.

In a perfect situation you don't get two candidates of this magnitude in the same election. These are two very strong personalities who in some ways are very similar and in others very different. They are both very polarizing to their respective supporters and while not having a candidate in place prior to the convention could be distracting I don't believe that it will kill the party. We are in the unique position of having two very good candidates vying for the nomination. For me personally I can be happy either way my candidates are rock stars both capable of unbelievable popularity, potential and success. It is now up to the American people to have their say on which one gets the nod.

-tw

...next Hollywood's possible influence on the nomination.