Overall Obama is an extraordinarily inspiring figure, and his message is the right message for our times.  McCain’s principled leadership is also inspiring, and it is clear he puts the nation ahead of himself.  But Obama seems to be more in tune with what this nation and world need.

That said, Obama will need to confront two major issues which otherwise will be his undoing.

On one side stands his positions on Iraq and Iran.  This may sound counterintuitive, because it is part of what propelled him and distinguished him from Clinton and McCain.  But increasingly, Americans are aligning themselves to McCain’s perspective that, now that the US is in Iraq, it can only leave in tandem with success and stability for the Iraqi government and people.  John Vinocur persuasively argues that Obama’s current policy responses may not be persuasive.  Obama’s positions on Iran also expose him to perceptions of naivete and are frankly somewhat scary.  Does he understand the fundamentally divisive ideological framework from which Iran’s current rulers rule with totalitarianism and hegemonic ambition?

The second and potentially most damaging issue that Obama will need to overcome is his close relationship to his Pastor, a man whose statements on America (not to mention other issues) would be reprehensible to most Americans.  Obama did an excellent job addressing issues of race and religion and was extraordinarily classy in how he managed the issue, but it may not be enough, as this opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal points out to the depth of the problem with having a potential US President sit by while his Minister spews out such hatred.

Tags: Democracy and Freedom (or lack of), Leadership, Religion, United States, Middle East //