Barack Obama is cooler than Mitt Romney (IMO) and he definitely has "swagga."  

Both have stutters than can be distracting at times, yet both are good at speeches. Barack has a much better walk than Romney. Barack moves as if he has the confidence of 100 men, while Romney walks like an old man lumbering from point A to point B with bad feet. Both men are disarmingly handsome (IMO), both have sexy voices (IMO) but Barack Obama has that special something that.....well......

Let's just say if there was a theme song that played behind them as they walked, Obama's would be the Theme from Shaft and Romney's would be Don't Worry Be Happy.

This topic comes to mind because of the appearance of President Obama on the Jimmy Fallon show. I watched it and found myself fascinated by him. It was the same emotions I felt the night I saw him for the first time giving the keynote speech at the 2004 DNC.  I remember hanging on his every word and having an immediate sense that he would be our first President of color. Little did I know it would be so soon, but I knew it would happen. He has a certain charisma that is captivating to watch. He and Michelle seem like incredibly likable people. As many polls have shown and I agree with, yes, they would make the best neighbors.

But I digress....

I was watching the show and one of the Twitter questions Jimmy read for the President to respond to was "I am going to vote for you. What reason should I tell my child as to why I am voting for you over Romney?"  The president thought for a moment and than proceeded to give a stock political answer. As I stared at the television and smiled, it did make me think. Why should people vote for Barack Obama over Romney? And in that instance I realized that we have jumped the hurdle of race. This election will be and should be only about his leadership. That is not to say he wasn't the more qualified between McCain and himself, clearly he was. It was a "two-fer" so to speak that we were getting the most qualified men to lead our nation compared to McCain and Plain, but to know that we were breaking a 200 year tradition of only White men sitting in the White House was a big deal to most Americans. Not just Blacks but almost everyone was swept up in the emotions of what we saw happening and knew was on the horizon. 

To be President of the United States means you must deal with....

The military - all branches.

Both the Congress and the Senate

The economy in terms of banks, budgets, social security, medicare and all fiscal matters.

Women's rights issues.

Gay rights issues.

Senior citizens.

Unions.

The supreme court and decisions regarding new laws.

Special interest groups.

Foreign dignitaries and negotiations.

Immigration.

The youth constituency in terms of their student loans and jobs.

Employment numbers - trying to build them up and avoid high unemployment.

The delicate dance of courting employers while not putting them off in terms of taxes. 

Environmental issues, natural resources and gas prices.

Racial divide, social issues and concerns.

And many, many more issues.

The President is required to deal with this all, every day, all day long. And while dealing with all of this, they must still attempt to keep some semblance of normalcy in their lives in terms of their family, hobbies, friends and social activities. And do so in a manner that doesn't "offend" anyone and do so knowing they can not and will not please everyone.  So they must attempt to lead from the middle as to appear centrist even if their political affiliation is to the left or right.

As we all know this is a lot to handle for one person and is the reason more people aren't jumping at the chance to run for President every four years. It does take a person with a strong personality, ego, presence and sense of authority. Barack Obama has this and so does Mitt Romney.

This is not a job where you can pick and choose what will be a priority on any given day. If you don't like gays, tough...they are part of your constituency so you must deal with their concerns. Latinos annoy you? Oh well, they too have a voice and rights as Americans. Women, farmers, stock brokers, police/teachers/steel workers unions too demanding? Tough. A hurricane hits, a tornado devastates a town, wild fires break out in the west....deal with it.

The question is, can you see Mitt Romney juggling all of the issues he will have to balance? Has Barack Obama and Joe Biden proved they can?