This is perhaps the worst endorsement Barack Obama will ever receive, and doubtless it will keep him up at night. So I apologize to him and his family in advance.

After eight years under an administration barely capable of running a hot dog stand, much less an entire country, we need someone who has concrete ideas on how to right this floundering ship. While I have leaned toward (and in 2004, campaigned for) Barack Obama for some time I also have some concerns. They include his foreign policy stance, the lack of substance in his speeches and the anesthetizing effect his rhetoric has on his supporters. While I have taken him forsaking all others, it should not preclude me or other supporters from criticizing him. Then we would be Bush supporters. I am a bit of a contrarian by nature, inherently suspicious of mass rallies and candidates with golden tongues.

My greatest concern is the Obama campaign’s emphasis on campaigning by slogan. Inspiration and sloganeering are necessary to a campaign but, as this administration has taught us, it does not translate to sound policy. We cannot continue to replace substance with inane little jingles that in the end become yet another sacrificial offering to the already satiated gods of irony (see: No Child Left Behind). Barack Obama’s early speeches had the same effect on the public as a bag of potato chips: they taste good and you eat them fast, but five minutes later, you realize that you’re still starving.

So allow me to articulate some policy concerns since few other supporters are willing to do so. Let’s take a cursory glance at his stance on Iraq. I find that so far, his ideas are either unworkable or scandalously vague.

First, let’s address the scandalously vague. Barack Obama will “Change the culture of secrecy” and “[Engage] the American people on foreign policy.” Ladies and gentlemen, are we not tired of this sort of empty rhetoric? What does any of this actually mean? Let’s take “Engaging the American public in foreign policy.” It sounds like a good idea. But allow me to point out why this is clearly stupid. Seventy percent of the public supported going into Iraq in 2003 (CBS poll) despite all of the indicators suggesting that it was lunacy. One of the biggest red flags was that once we committed to a fight and an occupation, we could not easily withdraw. This was exceedingly clear in the debate. Now that Iraq is a mess and a withdrawal would only hurt our interests in the region while further destabilizing the country, this same putty public wants us to withdraw. Super.

Now to the unworkable: take another example from his stance on Iraq. Barack Obama promises to bring all of our troops home in 16 months, leaving a small contingent to guard the embassy and diplomats. “Clear enough,” you say. Hardly. Further on he claims he will “secure Iraq’s borders.isolate al-Qaida [and] support reconciliation among Iraq’s sectarian groups..” How does he hope to accomplish all of this sans troops? Send Oprah? I admire him for his initial opposition to the war but let us not permit our hostility to the botched plans of the Bush administration lead to rash decisions on Iraq.

We all want change, just as we all want peace, prosperity, tolerance, justice, ice cream, a Lincoln Hall that is held together with something other than band-aids, and a decent showing by the Cubs every once in a while. That’s all I ask for. But inspiration and rhetoric will only carry the campaign only so far before the electorate grows impatient. If we accept Obama’s commitment to “change” and “hope” we must then question his ability to affect it. I am inspired but not fully convinced.

But I have not said why I support Barack Obama. I support him because, while the aforementioned concerns are worrying, they can, permit the pun, change.

What is more important is that he is tough but not divisive, someone who got to where he is without family connections, one who is untarnished by the partisan bickering of the other candidates and he has a character that even his opponents would say is incorruptible. On the domestic scene, his message of change is an important one. On the international scene, he is a rock star. I want to see him win but if he is to do so, he must run on more than hope and change.

Othman was a senior in political science until he made fun of Oprah. Let this be a warning.