Choosing a President (2)

I have said that maturity of character is the most important qualification to be President. So in the current field passes this test?

On the Democratic side, Hillary Clinton appears to have the best character to be President. She's never actually been President, but she used to live with someone who was. She knows a lot of what is involved in fulfilling the office.

Barack Obama is young, charismatic and gives the impression he knows what he's doing. But he is 45 now, and on inauguration day he will be 47. He is only in the third year of his first term as Senator. Hillary turns 60 later this year. The American electorate, after choosing two successive Presidents (Clinton and Bush) who turned out not to have the maturity of character required for the office, needs to be very careful this time around to choose someone whose has the character needed for the office.

Of course, someone might argue that a Black person in America, because of all the extra obstacles he or she needs to overcome, develops at least as much character in 45 years as a White person does in 60. Good point. Hillary, though, can trump this argument by saying, "Yeah, but look who I've been married to and all that I've had to put up with him." I think she comes out the winner in this contest. I think Obama will make a great President, but not this time.

(Continued . . .)

Hillary Clinton in Baghdad

One of the many distressing aspects of the current situation in Iraq is that Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton is beginning to appear downright presidential in comparison to ineffectual Bush administration officials and irresponsible Democratic leaders.

On Saturday, Clinton traveled to Baghdad for meetings with the Iraqi political leadership and U.S. commanders. She went on camera to say she was "skeptical" that the Iraqi government will fulfill its role in the new Bush strategy and characterised the overall situation in Iraq as "heartbreaking."

Other Democrats were criticising President Bush's strategy from the safety of congressional committee rooms and TV studios, but Clinton was there, on the ground. When she was filmed putting on body armor, it was not a Dukakis moment, because you knew that she was in an actual war zone.

I still have a lot of resistance to the idea of having another Clinton in the White House, but she is certainly demonstrating that she has what it takes to get there.