In my voting lifetime, I don’t believe I’ve witnessed a more impressive lineup of democratic presidential candidates. So it pains me a bit, to have to pick between them, especially with the election still a year away.

Although I appreciate Senator John Edwards’ candor, and his very accurate perspective that corporate interests are at the core of many of our domestic problems, his strategy to “defeat big business” is idealistic and not enough to build a platform around. If elected, Senator Edwards would discover the same impenetrable wall that the Clintons slammed into while trying to bring in a universal health care plan in 1993.

That leaves Senator Barack Obama and Senator Hillary Clinton. Senator Clinton with her ostensibly vested interests in “big business” is not a conflict, but an inspired strategy of reforming corporate interests from within. Senator Clinton knows how to work this unwieldy and superannuated network of government agencies and corporate America. She learned the hard way, but learn she did. As eloquent as Senator Obama is, as gifted as he is, this is not his time. It would take years for him to become as knowledgeable and effective as Senator Clinton in reforming these broken systems.

However, I ardently believe that Senator Obama will be president one day, perhaps in 2016. By then, if all goes as it should, the United States would have had its first woman president in office, our country would had regained a good part, if not all, of its credibility and identity as a sane and legitimate world leader, and a voice of democracy. And America, red and blue states included, would hopefully have moved past any rhetoric of gender and/or race.

Both nationally and internationally, there is a desperate need for the kind of leadership that only Senator Clinton can accomplish. Senator Hillary Clinton’s time is now, but is it too much to hope for a Clinton/Obama ticket for 2008?

I can dream...