Why we need Obama not McCain

The world seems to have been particularly fascinated with the unfolding of the Presidential race in the USA this year and I'm no exception. The first thing to say is that whoever wins it will not be a Bush or a Clinton, thank goodness for that at least. I'm no expert on American politics and can't claim to fully understand the policies of Barack Obama and John McCain but there are two very very powerful reasons why I hope that Obama wins:

• McCain is old and not in the best of health and there is real concern that he might not live through one let alone two presidencies. If he were to die in office then Sarah Palin would become President, that really would be scary.
• McCain can be very charming but his Achilles heel is his violent temper. A great strength of Obama is that he has shown himself to be totally calm and in control of himself. He also I think is prepared to take soundings from his advisers and act with good sense in a crisis. I'm old enough to remember the Cuban Missile Crisis when President Kennedy faced down Kruschev and the Russians. Hopefully we will never see anything like that again but it would be good to know that there was someone in The White House who would take a measured decision if the necessity arose.

So there we have it: it is definitely Obama for me. Now he has received support from Colin Powell his position looks even more impregnable. Obama's main concern now must be whether his country still has racist undertones. I think and hope that America has moved on enough for that not to be a major factor in the voting. In just over two weeks we will all know the answer.