Barack Obama the wisest choice

George Burditt gave us some fun in the Feb. 28 T.O. Acorn ("None looks good to me so far"), but I think it's easy to solve his dilemma.

It comes down to defining what the president's job really is. We make the mistake of thinking of him as commander in chief- - the boss- - but he's really the head of a team. The quality of any administration is determined by how good the president is at selecting and motivating that team, a team that by its nature is made up of powerful people who are, by their nature, going to be difficult to manage.

So the job is really "chief cat herder."

The next president will face a slew of problems the like of which we've not seen since the 1930s. Solving them will require a serious team effort, which suggests we need someone like FDR, who can work with the biggest possible pool of talent.

The three front runners seem to be effective leaders, but of the three, only Obama lacks the baggage that will make the work difficult.

McCain has a problem with his party and with some dubious people he's connected to. Hillary Clinton carries the weight of her name- rather unfairly, in my opinion- but that name links her directly with the contentiousness and divisiveness of the '90s.

Obama is relatively unknown, but he's no lightweight as some have suggested. I first became aware of him over a year ago when I caught a speech while channel flipping and was riveted by his grasp of his material and his ability to communicate it. He spoke without theatrics and was willing to answer questions without preparation.

I'd never seen anything like it before, so I'm willing to take the chance on Barack Obama as the candidate most likely to be able to herd those cats. Martin Usher Thousand Oaks