Obama Announces He's In

Looks like Barack Obama is done "exploring" the idea of being president, because he officially announced this morning in Illinois (in the city of Abraham Lincoln, might I point out) that he is in the race. He announced in early January that he had developed an exploratory committee, but we all knew that it was only a matter of time before he announced that he was running. After all, he along with John Edwards and Hillary Clinton have been the front-runners in the media as well as in fundraising for some time now.

Senator Obama claims that he wants to be the change in government that this country is looking for. He stated that "...it's time to turn the page" on the old kind of politics. It is this type of attitude and charisma that draws in Obama's crowds. If elected, he would become the first African-American president in the history of the United States. This fact plays into his call for a change in our generation, pointing out the progress in politics with each new one. Obama stated that "...each and every time, a new generation has risen up and done what's needed to be done," and claimed that it is time for ours to do the same.

Though there is a lot of excitement about the candidacy of Senator Obama, I am still skeptical of his abilities to win a national election. We have to remember that he has only been serving in the Senate since 2005. He has only just found his way around the city of Washington D.C., and now he thinks he can run it? Two years is not enough time to be able to hold his head above water with political superstars like Hillary or Edwards. Both of them have been part of a national election before and they are all too familiar with how this works.

Whether Obama's popularity will die off before the primaries in Iowa, I do not know. Yes, the American people are ready for a change in our government, but I'm not sure that it can come from Senator Barack Obama when our party tries to win the general election. With the issues at hand, it's important for the voters of the Democratic Party to keep their eye on the prize of what is best for this country. Obama may be an excellent candidate for the White House someday, but I would like for him to get a bit more practice before he steps up to bat.