The 2008 presidential election race has begun.

It wasn’t until a month ago that I started listening to some of the presidential nominees. C-Span is your friend when you want that unfiltered raw. So there I was one Saturday afternoon, tuned into a Barack Obama town hall stop in Iowa; just a community center stage and a couple hundred silver hairs and college kids.

I wanted to get the answer to the question that everyone was tossing around at that time: What does he stand for? What are the plans in an Obama administration?

I’d bore you with talk of health care, foreign policy, and changes needed in our energy dependence, but it wouldn’t move you on anything. In fact, you might ask the same question that one woman asked him in the Q&A that followed the half-hour session, “What do you stand for?” He looked at her dumbfounded and said, “I just spent the whole talk telling you about it,” but he gave her the 30 second refresher.

A few minutes later he batted another question that asked about his experience.

After the program I wasn’t all that enthused about waving the Obama flag, but the sticking point of my support for a candidate in the upcoming election is change. Change in the way politics is approached; change in the country’s perception around the world; and a change in the country’s vision - an inclusive one.

Barack Obama had my ear for at least another round.

After last night’s victory, I’m really tuned in.
If he wins the primary, I’ll vote for Barack Obama this November.

It wasn’t the 38% - 29% smashing of Hillary Clinton.

It was the victory speech he gave afterward.

The only reason Barack Obama is running for president today is the spectacular speech he delivered in the 2004 Democratic National Convention. Literally minutes after he stepped away from the microphone, people thought out loud about him being a potential presidential candidate.

Four years later, here we are, but I haven’t heard him deliver a speech in the same way since then.

Word on the tube (TV not You) is Barack Obama has been off and on during the early campaign season. In clips from debates he didn’t seem all that convincing either, but again, these are snippets of conversations. The reason for the C-Span sitdown.

Last night’s victory speech saw him with the same energy he had during the convention. If he can keep this going throughout the campaign, he just may be the new face of the United States.

I’m looking for change in the coming election.

It’s why I will not vote for Hillary Clinton. She’s more of the same B.S. politics.

As for the experience factor, I believe Chris Rock smacked that out of the park (this is an entertainment spot so we’ll use him as a reference, haha); he said if he died tomorrow his wife could get on stage, but she wouldn’t make anyone laugh… at all!

Which is to say just because Hillary Clinton watched her husband do his job doesn’t mean she can do it too.

On a more textual note, there is a detailed take on how Barack Obama can change the world’s perception of the United States in a post Bush world in The Atlantic’s “Goodbye To All That”.

It’s the reason why I won’t cross lines to vote for someone like a Huckabee or a John McCain.

Huckabee is a likeable, soothing kind of guy,  if he wasn’t a preacher someone would say that he should be one, or maybe voicing self-help audiobooks. He was the governor of Arkansas, but I just cannot see that Christian evangelical thing going over well with the Bin Laden crowd. And isn’t that what we’re worried about these days? I joke, slightly.

Imagine world headlines that the United States elected a former preacher to the big seat. Now imagine hands thrown in the air.. “Oh boy, business as usual!” On all sides, Asia, Europe, etc. Bush ruined that let’s be good Christians thing.

Enough. First round goes to Barack Obama.

The next primary in New Hampshire should be Hillary Clinton’s, but soon after there is the friendly state of South Carolina. That should be a repeat of the results in Iowa, but with a tighter margin.

No need to guess. Four days til New Hampshire, bring on the political season.