The American president who will be elected in 2008 will have to be a different kind of leader—not just because he or she is an African-American male, or an elderly statesman still haunted by a decades-old war, or a CEO, or a woman—but a leader who can see outside the borders of our country and lead globally, because in the 21st century the leader of this country must understand and bring about something that no American president in the past has had to achieve—a world coalition. Any country that is to move forward economically, culturally, and yes, even spiritually, can no longer be isolated from the world and expect to be influential or powerful.

The world is political and we must be political. That’s a given, like it or not. And like it or not, we must be strong economically and militarily, so we can once again take our place as a credible and effective power in a world coalition of the new millennium. And that power, like it or not, cannot come in the form of hope, or militarism born from the humiliation of wars lost, or from business savvy, but in the form of a leader whose ideas and strategies comes from a deep understanding of how to coordinate the world’s resources and its collective might—not just for the benefit of our country, but for the benefit of the world.

It is a rare opportunity when voters can elect a President who is so perfectly suited to confront the unique challenges facing our nation. That candidate is Senator Hillary Clinton.