I’ve made no secret of it: I believe Barack Obama has the best chance of unifying the country enough that we can make coherent decisions for the benefit of the majority of American citizens.

If the polls are correct, it appears that Barack Obama has a very good chance of being elected the next President of the United States. Obama’s selection is by no means certain, however. Only a fool would nonchalantly assume that Obama is a shoe in. There are too many things going against Obama.

For instance, many Americans are bigoted, and they are becoming increasingly visible throughout this campaign. Many Americans are openly bigoted, as can be seen through recent YouTube videos taken at McCain-Palin rallies. Recently, Obama visited his sick grandmother, which served as an opportunity to remind voters that Obama’s mother was Caucasian. I suspect that this reminder that Obama is “multiracial” makes bigoted Americans even more angry at him, not less.

Obama has made it clear that he does not look to the military as the first solution to international disputes. This grates on many conservatives and moderates, who believe they reside in a world where terrorists lurk behind almost every corner. It makes Obama look weak to them.

Obama is tolerant of people with alternative cultures and viewpoints, which also frustrates many people who got fired up after 9/11.

Obama has been labeled a “liberal,” which chafes at many conservatives and moderates, who continue to cling to the notion of an omniscient “free market,” despite the economic collapse of the United States.

Therefore, tens of millions of conservatives and moderates have major concerns with Obama, which means that this election is by no means decided, especially given all the Republican efforts to tilt the vote-taking and vote-counting systems of numerous states.

Some polls only have Obama up by a few points over McCain, and other polls still suggests that McCain could pull out a victory with a little luck here and there. That this election is still being contested perplexes me, however: it makes me wonder whether we have a critical mass of intelligence in this country that the polling is not currently 80-20 in favor of Obama.

Given this context, then, imagine how close this election would be right now had the Republicans picked someone without all of McCain’s horrific negatives, or if McCain hadn’t caused so many of his own negatives. What negatives?

McCain is a warmonger in a day and age when America is rapidly running out of money with which to wage wars. He insists on seeing the world in black and white. He villainizes everyone with whom he doesn’t agree. Intellectually, he is a dim bulb, unable to assimilate complicated issues such as the economy, the budget, diplomatic strategy, cultural complexity, educational priorities and anything else requiring patient and critical thinking. He has demonstrated this lack of ability time and time again when he is interviewed without the assistance of a Teleprompter.

Most visibly, McCain recklessly chose a vice president who is proudly uncurious and even less able than McCain to assimilate necessary facts in order to process complex political issues. Recent news articles are demonstrating that Sarah Palin lacks even the most basic political instincts (based upon her purchase of $150,000 in clothing the past two months, and the many outright and demonstrable lies she has told regarding her time as a mayor and the governor). Palin is so obviously incompetent to serve as vice president that conservatives are now jumping ship from McCain’s campaign in great numbers.

“Straight-Talk” McCain’s strategy was to abandon his moderate credentials at the precise moment that he would need them to woo moderate voters.

Here’s the bottom line: Imagine how close this election would have been right now had the Republicans chosen any semi-competent moderate conservative other than McCain. It’s my gut instinct that any such conservative candidate other than McCain (assuming they ran a semi-competent campaign) would be currently running neck and neck with Barack Obama.

Think back and recall the disoriented reaction of McCain to the economic meltdown. Consider his unwillingness to carve out and justify credible political positions based on real-world facts. Consider his choice of Sarah Palin as Vice President. Consider McCain’s carefully calculated decision to run a hate-filled campaign against Obama rather than presenting any sort of half-baked political agenda to get the country back on track.

That the current campaign is still competitive feels me with dread, because it means that Obama is looking passable to millions of Americans only because McCain is looking so God-awful terrible.

It also makes me wonder why McCain has made the many terrible decisions he has made. You would think, with hundreds of millions of dollars available to buy the world’s best political experts, he could have easily done better. That McCain threw away a chance to be competitive makes me wonder whether McCain subconsciously feels that America is in such terrible shape that he’s not up to the job. I would suspect that McCain has consciously suspected as much. I also suspect that McCain might be unconsciously trying to torpedo his own campaign because he knows that he is not up to the job.

Psychoanalyzing candidates is always dicey business, I am well aware. On the other hand, to be only a few points behind Barack Obama on a national basis, after the destruction McCain has brought to his own campaign, suggests that this campaign was for McCain to win if he wanted it. Ergo, he didn’t want it. At least, he didn’t subconsciously want it.