I’m not the most vocal or political person out there, mainly because I’m not very eloquent when I get in an argument with people. Even so, anyone who’s been around me has probably heard me say at one point or another that my vote is locked up for Barack Obama.

The key excuse against him that I keep hearing is that he’s simply too young and too inexperienced. I hear it so much that it sounds like a broken record being blasted over loudspeakers from the Clinton base camp. Barack is currently 47 years old, an age which Hillary is more than willing to criticize for readiness to accept the presidency. However, what she fails to “remember” is that Barack is the same age as her husband Bill Clinton was when he first took office, and three years older than president John F. Kennedy.

Now I’m not trying to downplay that age and experience aren’t a good thing, because they are, plain and simple, and there really isn’t any substitute for someone knowing how the system works. In that aspect Hillary has the advantage. But with the current state this nation is in, I think we need someone who is going to help break the mold, not conform to it.

I was born well before the era of Kennedy, but everything I have ever seen, heard or read about him has told me that during his time in office he was an influential and charismatic man. He was someone who inspired hope in the people he helped to govern and gave them a reason to drive forward.

Surrounding us right now are political changes and struggles, a global community that, more or less, thinks very little of us as a nation, and a looming economic recession. Individually, these factors can bog down a nation for possibly a short while, but when they come together they have the potential to hit our collective consciousness like a sledgehammer.

In Barack Obama, I see a man who has more than the potential to make history as America’s first African-American president. In the grand scope of his potential, I think ethnicity is the least of what is exciting about his candidacy. In Barack, I see a person who can competently lead this nation through an upcoming time of trial and tribulation that Hillary won’t be able to do. I see a candidate who is truly much more of a “uniter” that current president George W. Bush ever was or will be.

For those reading this today, the decision for the Democratic candidate is yet to be seen, and for those reading this beyond tomorrow the picture will be much clearer, but everything I have heard about this upcoming election has been something to the effect that, barring any major error, the Democrats essentially have sealed a spot in the White House. However, if the choice comes down to the Republican nominee and Hillary then it may not be as certain as some would like to believe.

This will be the fourth election I have participated in but the first I have actually cared about. Barack Obama has me excited and hopeful about politics, and I can only hope that the rest of the nation will be able to see his potential as well as I can.