It. Is. Time.

Barack Obama defeated Hillary Clinton handily in North Carolina, and held her advantage to two percent or less in Indiana. To my knowledge, there are three states remaining in the primary for the Democratic nomination: Oregon, South Dakota, and Kentucky, and even if Hillary swept all three it still would not be enough. Speculation has already begun (since she canceled her morning 'news' appearances) that her supporters and campaign staff are trying to figure out a way to break the reality of the situation to her and Bill as gently as possible.

Taking as presumed that Senator Clinton will withdraw from the race in the very near future, I am finally going to support one candidate for President.

That candidate is Senator Barack Hussein Obama of Illinois (Democrat).

Why, since I'm Republican?

Several reasons. First, I loathe what the head cheeses and nattering nabobs of my Party have done to this country and to this government. Let's call the roll:

They have gutted the Treasury with stupidly thought-out tax cuts for the very wealthy that shifted a greater burden onto an already overburdened middle class, with no rosy "supply-side" benefit.

They have crippled the economy by deregulating everything in sight and fraudulently dragging America into two wars that are currently costing us far too much in lives and money, to no benefit of our fighting forces.

They have damaged (hopefully not irreparably) the Constitution of the United States by their infringements upon the First, Fourth, Fifth, Tenth and Fourteenth Amendments, and by their callous disregard for the right of habeus corpus and their flouting of international treaties and conventions.

They have damaged the reputation of the United States Government by politicizing supposedly neutral offices.

They have allowed an entire American city to wallow in fetid flood waters while people fought to survive, and then did only the bare minimum to help.

They have ruined America's moral standing and reputation with its global neighbors through their unilateral tactics, their nearsighted parochialism and their high-handed manners.

Second (you didn't think there'd be one of those, huh?), one of said nattering nabobs, one Grover Norquist, opined that the aim of the Republican Party should be to shrink the government down to a point that it could be "drowned in a bathtub." I think Mr. Norquist deserves the same treatment, as it was his philosophy that led to Katrina and has led to millions of Americans thinking that their own government - you know, the one we elect every few years - is trying to deliberately destroy the country.

Third, since 1988 the President has been named either Bush or Clinton, and that has got to stop. America is no place for dynasties, and the GOP's fronting of Senator John McCain promises to just carry on the failed and utterly wretched "Bush legacy" for another appalling four years.

All of this is reason enough for me to support the one person, the one fresh name in the crowd, in his bid for the White House. He connects with people to a greater degree than either his rival or McCain, and he seems to feel the need that the people have for their government to actually DO something.

Ronald Reagan once said that government wasn't the solution but the actual problem; Bush's two terms are merely the fruits of that idea. Government can solve quite a few problems, unless the leaders of that government are working actively against it.

So I think, based on my current analysis, that Senator Barack Obama will become the Democratic Party's nominee. I also think that he will defeat Senator John McCain for the Presidency.

I wish him all the luck in the world.

Res ipsa loquitur.