We will soon have a chance to elect a new president. This new president will not have it easy, as he or she will have to tackle the many problems left behind by President Bush. He or she will have to gracefully and respectfully pull out of the War in Iraq, bring creditability back to American foreign policy and strengthen the U.S. economy. There is no better candidate who can answer these problems than Sen. Barack Obama.

The two front-runners for the Democratic presidential nomination are Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. With the awful status of the Republican Party (left behind by G.W.), I highly doubt any GOP candidate has a chance at the 2008 presidency. But between the two Democratic front-runners, there is no doubt that Barack Obama is more qualified to be president than Hillary Clinton. To start, Barack Obama never voted for the war. Hillary Clinton did vote for the war. In addition, she hasn’t made a clear exit strategy to leave Iraq. But this doesn’t surprise me either because she couldn’t make an easy decision to leave a man who cheated on her.

Some proponents of Sen. Clinton say she has more foreign relations experience than Sen. Obama. But taking Air Force One to Europe on vacation during her husband’s presidential term does not count as foreign relations experience. Barack Obama graduated from Columbia University with a degree in political science, specializing in international relations. Even more important than having experience is having good judgment and intelligence.

There is very little that can prepare a leader for catastrophes like 9/11. It takes good decision making, which comes from intelligence, to correctly handle such horrific events. Sen. Barack Obama has proven to be extremely intelligent. He graduated from Harvard Law School magna cum laude and was the president of the Harvard Law Review.

Above all, Barack Obama will bring a certain type of freshness to the Oval Office. Not being the son or spouse of a former president allows him to bring new ideas to Washington. Unlike Hillary, he will not be influenced by major corporations who make large campaign contributions in exchange for future favorable regulations to be passed. Obama has concentrated on receiving numerous small donations (ranging from $25-$50) from individuals. He has collected more than 350,000 individual small donations.

In all seriousness, the fact that Hillary Clinton decided to stay married to Bill Clinton has no real validity when choosing a president. The real reason to support Barack Obama in his presidential race is because he has been consistent on the issues he stands for; he isn’t greatly influenced by giant self-interested corporations and will bring intelligent decision making to a White House that has been starving for it for the past seven years. Barack Obama for president.