Walk, Don't Run

Walk, Don't Run

Barack Obama will be a good president, someday. Those who are urging him to run know this but they a putting the cart before the horse. He speaks well, he is handsome, and he is smart but he cannot be elected president for three reasons. First is lack of governmental executive experience. Second is an unbeatable opponent. And third, with the aging of the American population, a relatively young man will have another strike against him. Obama is only 45 years old.

Senator Obama was right 9 months ago when he said he would not run. He knew then and he still knows, deep inside, that he lacks experience. He needs to serve at least one full term as senator. That experience will be very important to the résumé he needs to build. It gives him his Federal Credibility. In 2010, when his term as senator ends, he could be elected Governor of Illinois. Do a good job and get re-elected in 2014. THEN run for president in 2016. Running the fifth largest American State would give him that all necessary Executive Credibility. Plus, governors have a lot better record of getting elected than senators.

This mid-term election is going to go very well for the Democrat Party. They will probably take the House and might even get the Senate. Senator Obama needs to show leadership in the Senate, either as a solid lawmaker in the majority or a voice of opposition in the minority. He can make a name for himself by standing up for the people of Illinois and the country. He will not be able to lead the Senate and run for president at the same time. Also, after the Democrats are in power for two years, the Republicans will have much improved chances to win the presidency in 2008. For some reason Americans like the counterbalance of a Republican President versus a Democrat Congress. Besides the Republican nominee in 2008 will be John McCain. He will be unbeatable no matter who the Democrats put up. He will be a two term president which leaves 2016 ripe for Obama.

Finally, he is too young. The electorate gets older every year and they look for experience through age. He is only forty-five now. In 2016 he will be fifty-five. That would be the perfect age. When JFK was elected president he was 43 (and he had 12 years in the House and the Senate), but the median age of the U.S. population was twenty-seven years old. Today it is thirty-seven. In 2016 it will be about forty. This is a case where age will work for him. Remember that fifty is the new forty!

I would love to see Barack Obama become president but I would warn him against get rich quick schemes. People will push him and beg him, but he has to listen to himself; the guy he was before all this hype. Take your time Barack, do it right!

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