Six days to go until we elect the man who will have to deal with the inevitable crises of the next four years.

Senator Joe Biden was not off the mark when he pointed out that world will test the next president. The world’s intent to challenge the United States is already clearly evident. These tests will not even be manufactured, as Biden suggested, except for, perhaps, the test caused by the consequences of retreating from Iraq before that country is ready to care for itself without our help. Instead, these tests will be the natural extension of the forces at play in the world as it already is. [...]

Regardless of who wins the White House on 4 November, regardless of whom we inaugurate 20 January 2009, that person will still inherit a nation at war. Even though the news and the campaigns largely choose to ignore the fact that more than 200,000 members of our all-volunteer fighting force are in harm’s way, we will still inaugurate a wartime president. Whether the winner of the election believes in the notion of winning or withdrawing, he will still be forced to deal with the harsh realities of deployments and fighting and dying because we are a nation at war. [...]

If we held the election today, Barack Obama would win. [...]

I grant that I am not an economist, but it seems to me that, with the combination of the projected federal budget, the current federal deficit, and the proposed Wall Street bailout plan, the federal government will control more than 25 percent of the gross domestic product if the bailout plan passes. More correctly, the federal government will split that control with foreign governments who own a substantial share of our government’s debt. [...]

All of this talk in this presidential election cycle about who has the most experience to be president leaves me wondering when we developed an American nobility only from which can our candidates for president be chosen. When did some sort of ephemeral experience at being “presidential” become the prerequisite for being president? [...]