"I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character."
Martin Luther King Jr.
August 28, 1963

Just a handful of years after King spoke those words, in a time when the mere concept of a black president was pretty much unthinkable, Barack Obama supposedly wrote an essay in his Kindergarten class in Indonesia titled "I want to be President." Never mind the laughable idea of a Kindergarten "essay" (my son is in Kindergarten, and he writes things like "El tiburon es azul," mostly because his teacher tells him to write "El tiburon es azul.") or the supposed craven desire to lead America that the Clinton campaign apparently thought this exposed. That's all silly. The thing that is truly amazing is that a young man, who was both black and white, looked at the world in 1966 or 1967 and thought he could be president.

Talk about your impossible dreams.

King's dream of a colorblind society has not been realized, but it is that very lingering racial awareness that might well push Obama into the Oval Office. His ascension to the position of front runner--not just in his own party, but in the overall presidential race--is the sort of thing that makes people of all political stripes feel good. Despite the effectiveness of such racist political ploys as the "Southern strategy," which was first publicly articulated by Richard Nixon but had been used by Democrats for decades, the idea of a black president has a warm fuzzy feel for most Americans without regard for political belief or party affiliation. America likes to think of itself as a nation where a young person of any background could grow up to lead the country. That's not true, of course, but we like to think it is.

And Barack Obama encourages these thoughts. He's certainly not the most qualified candidate, and he may not be the smartest (though that's an open question). But what he does do is inspire people, and above all else, Americans want to be inspired.

Think about FDR, JFK or Reagan. The latter two weren't particularly good presidents, but all three are generally remembered fondly by the public at large. That's because they had the ability to lead. FDR worked his ass off to try to get the nation out of the Great Depression. And then he led us through World War II. Kennedy inspired a generation of young people to give back to the nation, and then he set us on the path to the moon. Reagan convinced us that the Cold War could be won, and he was right--even if the winning almost crippled us with debt.

Could Obama be like them? Maybe. At the moment he talks more about consensus than leadership, but perhaps that's because we need someone to lead a form of national reconciliation. We've spent the last thirty years sniping at each other (that would be one of the dark sides of the Reagan presidency), and it's about time we pulled together and fixed some serious problems. Immigration, health care and the threat of terrorism are all vexing issues. And the right answers won't be found on one side or another. We can solve these problems only when Americans--all Americans--put aside their petty sniping and face reality together. The only two candidates in the race who seem to understand that this must be done, much less actually have the ability to lead such a change, are Obama and John McCain.

My parents visited last week, and we talked a bit about the election. I said that I was hoping for an Obama/McCain race. That might well be the sort of campaign that would make America proud. We could have substantive discussions about the issues facing America and the ways we could solve those problems. McCain has consistently worked with Democrats in the Senate to craft important legislation (the failed immigration bill, among others), and Obama's much slimmer record is one of consensus building. Such a race would be a dream for me--a dream that seems much more possible today than it did last Sunday.

We'll see how things shake out. Hillary Clinton could make a comeback. The Republicans could pick Rudy Giuliani. And that race would be so brutal it would make the rumored Freddy and Jason vs. Alien and Predator movie seem more like Bambi. If those two square off, I might not watch TV, listen to the radio or read a newspaper for three months next fall--except to see how the Missouri Tigers are kicking ass, of course.

I think I'll stick with my dream. An America united. Or something cheesy like that. Sometimes it's good just to feel good.

Jon Worley is a "feel good" kinda guy.