Why Obama is a great guy

The reasons for liking Barack Obama seem to be piling up. In an interview on "60 Minutes" Sunday night, Obama said he plans to shut down Guantanamo prison and wants the U.S. to stop holding prisoners for no reason.

(He claims to have said it before, but it was the first I've heard of it. Perhaps it got lost during his many other campaign points).

The way America has treated foreign prisoners in the years since George W. Bush took office is one reason the world has turned a cold shoulder to this great nation. People have been held but never charged, hidden from the public's eye, away from lawyers and court systems. And American leaders have defended this because it's "the only way to fight terror" in the world.

Obama will prove them wrong. He will show that by treating other countries with respect, he can gain the world's trust back. Then nations can join together and be strong.

United, we will fight terrorism. And together, we will win.

The first presidential debate - UPDATED

I'm surprisingly uniterested in politics.

Four years ago, I won a prize at an election party for correctly predicting that George W. Bush would win (and guessing how many states he would take and what they were), but when there's no prizes involved, I care less about politics than the average journalist. (More than the average American, though, I would say).

Despite this, I watched about a half hour of the first presidential debate on Friday night at work. It felt like the right thing to do.

Had Hillary been the Democratic candidate, perhaps I would have paid more attention to the race. I've never really warmed up to Barack Obama. When my grandmother asked me last year who I thought was going to be the next president, if it would be Hill-A-Ryh or "that O-Ha-Ma," I told her John McCain would probably win. "Mac what?" she said (but in Swedish, of course).

I just have this feeling at the pit of my stomach that this country will never vote for a black man who is young, well-educated, well-spoken and has great ideas. It is much safer to stick to what you know. And Hillary had too much baggage - even to win the Democratic ticket.

McCain isn't Bush. People want to compare the two to no end, but they are - after all - different people. "He's a Republican," I told my grandma, "but this country needs change, and whoever it is, it isn't Bush, and that'll help a lot."

That was, of course, until McCain picked the young, beautiful "hockey mom" from Alaska as his VP. While I'd like to see a woman try to run this country, Sarah Palin is not the one. I don't think anyone is ready for THAT.

UPDATE: Watch the Saturday Night Live version of this debate.