by Glenn Brittany

Created on: November 04, 2008   Last Updated: November 21, 2008

The reason Americans are about to elect Barack Obama for president of the United States has much to do with his character. Obama emits integrity and intelligence and he treats everyone with dignity and respect, no matter their race, creed or origin. This is how it ought to be, and it's a very encouraging sign that Americans now understand this and are acting on it.

Obama's leadership style is a learning style; he is flexible, he listens to opposing views and he is open to them. He seeks to unify. He adapts to the needs of the time. This is a vastly different leadership style from that of George W. Bush. Bush's "my way or the highway" leadership style has unfortunately made the United States unpopular in international circles. He has managed to tarnish our reputation of being "the good guys," but Obama has the power to reclaim our standing internationally because he is a good guy.

The fact that Obama does not have as much experience as McCain does not seem to matter as much as his character. When it comes to character, Obama has not deviated during his entire campaign. McCain, however, turned his back on his own maverick nature and independent-minded public statements of his past in order to elicit the support of the Republican party and Bush. Most of us were surprised to see photos of McCain hugging Bush since McCain had criticized much of Bush's policies in the past.

Bush's presidency will surely be chronicled in history as a failure. Such an abysmal failure that, for the first time in history, Americans are willing to elect a woman or a half-African American to the White House to elicit radical change. In other words, we want something that is the opposite of Bush. We don't want stagnation; we want transformation. Obama is the man who can do it.

McCain seems like a nice man, but the time is not right for his way. He has conceded too much, compromised too often, to get to where he is today. Obama, on the other hand, has not. What the United States needs now more than anything is a person with integrity and an earnest desire to serve the American people.

Obama brings a willing attitude and an excellent character. The fact that he is young will help him, too, because there is a lot of work ahead of him. It will take massive amounts of energy and time to get this country in shape.

A friend of mine told me an anecdote about Obama that I'd like to share with you. My friend, who volunteers for the Democratic party, recently met a man in a wheelchair at a political function. My friend asked the man why he was such a strong supporter of Obama. The man replied, "The first time I met Obama, I was in a crowd of thousands of people; I introduced myself and shook his hand. The second time I met Obama, he remembered my name."

Postscript: "Who you are speaks so loudly I can't hear what you're saying." Ralph Waldo Emerson

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