Obama and McCain for the Democratic and Republican Nominations for President

As a registered Democrat, but someone who considers himself more of an independent, a moderate, a pragmatist, I see a clear choice between two candidates on the Democratic side -- Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton.  While I believe both would be capable of running the country successfully, I believe we need a candidate who represents the politics of hope and change and someone who can help bridge the partisan divide that has so long held Washington in its clutches, even though that divide will always remain to a greater or lesser degree.  That individual is Barack Obama.  While I believe that HRC is probably the more electable candidate, I believe we need a different kind of candidate with a different kind of life experience and point of view.

On the Republican side, there is really only one man that I believe could also unite the country.  Giuliani more closely shares my social views, but I believe that he would create an even more imperial and less transparent presidency than that of George W. Bush.  Huckabee seems like a very genial man who exhibits genuine Christian values, both liberal and conservative, and has a reasonable record as Arkansas governor, but I don't want a president to wear his religion on his sleeve and his rejection of evolution as a valid scientific theory, as well as his comments regarding treatment of AIDS patients in the 90's, concern me.  Romney lost me when he changed so many of his positions in his campaign to win the nomination as the true Reagan conservative.  That leaves me with my same choice for the Republican nomination from 2000 -- John McCain.  While he has occasionally disappointed me when he has pandered to religious conservatives after referring to far-right fundamentalists as "agent [sic] of intolerance" in the 2000 race, he has mostly returned to his maverick roots as a straight-shooting man of integrity and thoughtfulness.  Furthermore, he is the only nominee to even seriously consider global warming to be a serious threat and is vehemently against torture.