Obama most qualified

The next and best-qualified candidate to be elected as president of the United States is Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.).


He has the proven intelligence, political skills and diligence to meet the unprecedented challenges ahead of him.


In his college years, he attained a bachelor's degree in political science with specialization in international relations from Columbia University and a Juris Doctor (J.D.), Magna Cum Laude from Harvard Law School. 

Regarding his political skills, the quality of his campaign shows that Obama has been more civil, more consistent and has talked more about the issues at hand, instead of attacking the character of his opponent, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.).


Obama has expressed how he put law school and corporate life on hold to begin community work with a church-based group in Chicago. He had a desire to improve the lives of the poor.


Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, McCain's running mate, in her Republican National Convention speech, made negative remarks of Obama's community service time as if it was not worth justifying his experience as a presidential candidate. Yet, this advocacy prepared him to later run for the Illinois state senate, where he served for eight years and in 2004, was elected to the U.S. Senate.


There are many reasons Obama qualifies as the next president of the U.S.


 Through voicing his current proposals and staying on track with them at each campaign stop,  he has shown he is the best candidate to lead in recovering from the current economic recession.


The economic recovery plan, put together by Obama and his running mate, Sen. Joe Biden (D-Del.), includes approximately 12 defined categories. Some of the most prominent ones are the enactment of the windfall profits tax, providing $1,000 emergency energy rebates to American families. Another is to provide $50 billion to "jumpstart" the economy and prevent one million Americans from losing their jobs.


"When it comes down to it, I hear more concrete plans and proposals from Sen. Obama than from Sen. McCain. Also, of those proposals that I do hear from both candidates, I agree more with Sen. Obama's proposals," mathematics professor Ed Cruz said. "For example, (McCain's) economic principles don't seem too far off from President (George W.) Bush's economic principles, whereas Sen. Obama's economic principles represent a change of focus, a change of focus from the top-down to the bottom-up. Sen. Obama's economic principles focus more on me and my family."


The issues of the sagging economy were the most important topic American viewers wanted to hear about in the third debate between the two presidential candidates. McCain, unsolicited, brought up the involvement of Obama with William Ayres.  McCain continues to use negative tactics as his weapons of destruction against the character of Obama, sowing this negativity in the hearts and minds of even some of McCain's supporters.


Obama's pride and joy is his family, which includes his wife and two daughters. They give him strength to stand in the midst of some of the toughest campaign attacks ever against a candidate.


 Obama has withstood the "tests" and will bring change, as he will be elected as the next president of the United States. He has proven himself to be an honest leader, a strong leader and, most importantly, a compassionate leader.


Cassandra Juniel is a staff writer for The Advocate. Contact her at cjuniel.advocate@gmail.com.