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1-COMPETENCE & INTELLIGENCE. Obama is a constitutional lawyer and former editor-in-chief of Harvard Law Review. He can conceptualize the nuances of policy, and is able to acquire new bits of knowledge in very short periods of time. McCain's repeated confusion about basic economic concepts and failure to grasp key details (i.e., Sunni-Shi'ite distinction), reveals the limitations of his aged brain.

2-REPAIRING AMERICA'S REPUTATION. Nowadays, it matters what the rest of the world thinks, as we live in a globalized economy. America's dependence on foreign oil and the Chinese holders of our national debt makes us vulnerable to the whims of erratic world leaders. Internationally, over three-quarters of people polled wanted Obama to win. The world's stakeholders want to see a change in American policy. A McCain-Palin victory would have signaled more of the same.

3-PUNISHING REPUBLICANS. Our political system works only when we vote out the corrupt and incompetent. Weeding out the poor performers is as crucial as electing the apt ones. When the policies of the governing party have clearly failed, it's wiser that we vote for the candidate whose party affiliation will bring about new policies. The party of George W. Bush needed to "hear our voices." A vote for Obama was a vote against 8 years of failed policies.

4-VP QUALITY. One wonders what John McCain could have trusted his running mate to do. Over the course of the campaign, we learned that Sarah Palin (1) had not heard of the Bush Doctrine, (2) refers to Israelis as "Israelites," (3) can't name a single Supreme Court Case, and (4) counts Alaska's shared border with Canada as her main claim to foreign policy expertise. It's frightening to imagine such a person representing us in an international forum.

5-CABINET QUALITY. A president's effectiveness largely hinges on the quality of the people he surrounds himself with while in office. Unlike McCain, Obama had access to brilliant minds from both partiesincluding Republicans like Powell, Lugar, Hagel, and Schwarzenegger.

6-STRATEGIC VOTING & BALANCING POWER. If we expect candidates to offer sound policy choices, we need to vote strategicallyfor candidates whose election maximizes the competitiveness of our political party system. By switching up our voting patterns, we can force candidates to come to us. Obama was the better strategic choice for us as a nation. No party should ever feel as if it has an indefinite claim to power.
In the long run, all of us are better

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