(Drumroll, please...)
He's a human being. And a very good one at that. So, for that matter is John Edwards. Even Hillary Clinton. So let's get real, my people...
If Barack Obama were not a flawed, oh so perfectly human being, he probably wouldn't have smoked pot or done coke as a youngster. He probably wouldn't have smoked, period. He wouldn't say "Look!" all the time during debates like a smug teaching assistant. He wouldn't have allowed Donnie McClurkin on stage, and then sent a white preacher to try to clean up the mess. He wouldn't have allowed his campaign to make minor mistakes that are mostly only noticed by us anyway, but still. He wouldn't have the middle name Hussein until after he gets elected, when he could then use it to foster peace in the Middle East. He would make it back to every vote at the speed of light, regardless of whether they were traps set by the GOP for the general election. He would say things that would please both Frank Rich AND Paul Krugman. He would be smart and still likeable, ruthless and still feel our pain, be red-hot and cool, cuddly and macho, tough and sweet, all rolled up into one giant wrecking ball of a presidential campaigner, but still be egoless enough to be a humble, hard-working President who gets things done for the good of us all.
Also, he would levitate, and shoot lasers from his eyes at the evil doers of the world, because that would be excellent.
If John Edwards hadn't been born with a double-helix full of human, oh so human DNA, he would have hopped into a time machine and changed his vote for the Iraq war. He would have voted against Bush's Patriot Act and its destruction of our civil liberties. He would have ruthlessly attacked Dick Cheney as a VP candidate and given him what he deserved. He would have gone to the barber shop on the corner with a camera crew instead of, you know. He wouldn't blink like a POW sending morse code every time he's in a debate. He wouldn't be behind in all the polls, somehow. He would cure his wife's cancer and usher in a new Progressive Era for the country all with the snap of his fingers. He would change all those things and more. If he weren't merely human.
And Hillary. Oh, Hillary. Hillary would remember all those things she wanted to do back in '92 before the Republicans scared them out of her if she weren't so human after all. She wouldn't have to advocate more war just to look tough enough to be a woman in a (heretofore) man's job. She wouldn't laugh, in that way that people who somehow care about that crap find somewhat odd, at weird moments, but only at the good ones. She would go in a time machine and erase the moment she made the cookie-baking, stand-by-your-man home-makers of the nation cry with her sarcastic one-liner... but she wouldn't go back and change her vote for the Iraq war. That last part is the most disappointingly human of all. Perhaps unforgivably so for many here. But it doesn't make her evil.
So there you have it, three human beings. Let's judge them on their faults, but not make any up. Let's think hard about what direction and opportunities we want for our country, not just who we think the Republicans will attack the least (hint: they'll attack any of them). Let's have a discussion. In the end, though, none are perfect. But any of them have the potential to be not only a good but a great President of these United States, given the right conditions, much of it out of their control. Let's think about just how wonderful, how rare, really, this is. And then vote your gut and your conscience AND your mind. And then fight like hell for the winner.
Thanks for being human.
UPDATE (minor): Some have taken offense at the mention of Elizabeth Edward's cancer in this dairy, so I struck it out. Honestly, it was mentioned in the spirit of things John Edwards (and all of us, I'm sure) would do if we had superpowers and were not confined to our fragile homo sapien fates. Like ushering in a Progressive Utopia. Like changing any bad thing that has befallen us or the world that we would if we could. But some feel strongly about it, and I defer to them. I won't remove it, if only because then people might wonder what horrible thing I supposedly wrote, but I have crossed it out, for all to see it in its well-meaning if not sufficiently clear entirety. My apologies.