Onward and upward

Hillary Clinton is smart and tough, and because of her there are multitudes of girls who are growing up in an era where it will be normal for them to aspire to one day be president -- and possible that they will succeed.

However, it's been clear for quite a while that Barack Obama would be the Democratic nominee in the 2008 presidential race and only after Clinton stepped aside could he move forward to begin his general election campaign.

Current national polls show Obama with a small lead over GOP choice John McCain, but it is the electoral map that counts and this year the Democratic nominee will be battling in a number of states (Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia, Alaska, Montana and maybe even Texas) that Republicans have owned in recent presidential elections.

Meanwhile, between the unpopular war and the sluggish economy (which, unfortunately it seems to me, angers people more than Iraq), I think Obama will hold the Rust Belt states (Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania) with hordes of blue-collar voters that have so far not taken to the Illinois senator.

In any head-to-head match-ups (debates, town halls), Obama will blow McCain out of the water. As the summer turns into fall I think we'll see a clear lead in the polls for the Democrat, and in November we'll see Obama win a solid victory. For the well being of the nation and the world, this needs to happen.