It is no secret that the country faces great challenges over the next four years. Millions of Americans remain without health insurance, hundreds of thousands are being foreclosed out of their homes, our public schools are largely failing to serve as conduits for social mobility, and our economy is increasingly divided between a majority that has seen its real incomes decline and a wealthy few that is doing better than ever. Our infrastructure is crumbling and the vast deficit will force our generation to foot the bill for the profligacy of our parents. Abroad, Bush’s unilateralist foreign policy has decreased our global influence, while the lack of an exit strategy from Iraq has kept us mired there with no end to the conflict in sight, and with a military that is overstretched and woefully unprepared to meet new threats. The energy crunch we experienced this summer will only get worse so long as we continue to remain tied to oil, and the specter of climate change presents us—and the rest of the global community—with problems of almost inconceivable magnitude.

Because of these daunting obstacles, our fellow citizens are in an uncharacteristically pessimistic mood. The next president will have to deal with a nation that is highly cynical about government. We need a president who can rally the American people to face the great tasks of the early 21st century, as F.D.R. did from the depths of the Great Depression and the wake of Pearl Harbor, and Kennedy did when he called a generation to service in the 1960s.

The man to do it is Senator Barack Obama of Illinois. Obama knows that ensuring the security of our national pre-eminence and the soundness of our way of life requires an outlook in Washington that transcends partisan bickering, focusing on finding solutions, rather than scoring points. He has shown willingness, over the course of his career, to seek out those on different political stripes to find common ground on important issues. He recognizes, furthermore, that combating the many challenges we face means convincing the American people that the ills that ail us are soluble. Not only has the Obama campaign put forward numerous pragmatic policy prescriptions, Obama has that intangible ability to inspire in spades.

There are those who will argue that Obama’s inexperience makes him ill suited to lead in these trying times. It is easy to overstate the importance of experience. Lincoln, arguably our greatest president, had a mere two years in national office before becoming president. Nixon, one of our worst, had fourteen. Obama’s career is also marked by a history of prudent and intelligent judgment, from his early opposition to the Iraq War, to the brilliant political strategy that enabled his insurgent presidential campaign to defeat the Democratic heiress apparent, Hillary Clinton, to his predilection for surrounding himself with experienced Washington figures like Joe Biden. As for his opponent, the only thing we can say about Senator John McCain’s judgment is that he sees no problem with putting Governor Sarah Palin a seventy-two year old life away from the White House.

While we honor McCain’s military service, and his record as a public servant, we think he has sacrificed his maverick pretensions by pandering to the religious right and by stocking his campaign with GOP lobbyists. We have questions about his legendary temper, and, consequently, his ability to keep a cool head in a crisis. Most importantly, we think it unwise to take a chance on a man who has been 90 percent loyal to a party that led us into a debacle in Iraq, squandered a surplus, and fiddled while New Orleans sank.

Going forward, we are confident that the nation will break out of its funk. America has faced tough times before, and has always rebounded from them a stronger country. In days like these, we need a leader who will rally Americans to a common goal. We need a charismatic figure who embodies the American promise. We need Barack Obama.