After watching Barack and Michelle Obama many times on CNN on the stage together both before and after Obama makes a speech, their affection and erotic attraction for one another is very palpable. They are joyful, playful and sexy. How refreshing after icebergs Dubya and Laura Bush and the ongoing melodrama between unhappily married Bill and Hillary Clinton. If Obama wins the White House, he and Michelle will set a very warm and light-hearted tone in America, one which Americans deserve after the Clintons and the Bushes. Indeed, Barak Obama's smile which lights up his face is a fitting emblem for what America has in store if he is elected as President come November. The Change that he will bring is irresistible and compelling.

Are you sure you aren't allowing a sublimated stereotype of black hypersexuality to bubble to the surface and cloud your perceptions?

Just preparing you for the blow-back :)

I have to say that I simply do not believe Hillary's (or any future female candidate's) sexiness or lack thereof is of any real concern to voters. I think that is a feminist fabrication, pure and simple. What is particularly strange about it is that usually feminists are telling us society doesn't take attractive women seriously; one would think sexiness would be a liability for women in politics. This is part of the feminist construct however, making it so that it is sexism no matter what.

kuruman: I don't think that referring to Barak and Michelle Obama's erotic attraction means that I am allowing "a sublimated stereotype of black hypersexuality to bubble to the surface and cloud [my] perceptions". I don't see anything hypersexual about how Barak and Michelle relate to each other. Rather, my point is that along with presenting an exciting vision for the future for America, Barak Obama also has this cool relationship with his wife that is part of his charisma. If he and Michelle were white or Chinese or Hispanic and displayed a similar erotic attraction, I would have felt comfortable referring to it. So, for me, the issue is about the nature of their relationship, not race. In addition, I think that Americans do like it when the President and the First Lady present themselevs as a charismatic couple. This was certainly the case with John and Jaqueline Kennedy who usherred in a period of "Camelot" and also Ronnie and Nancy Reagan who set their own tone for the nation. I think that Barak and Michelle will do the same and I was attemntping to define what that would look like.

I know...I was just messing with you. I agree...it would be nice to have a young, energetic and vibrant couple in the white house.

Setting the tone for the nation is one of the more important things that the first family does, in my opinion.

The president "sets" policy, but cannot enact it, that is up to congress.

The president "sets" goals for the military, but it is up to the generals to implement it.

The president "sets the tone" for the Supreme Court by his/her choice of appointees, but has no actual part in its decisions.

And in a more subtle way, the president and "first family" set the tone for the nation, but is individuals within society who enact it.

The president isn't the person who owns the restaurant, he or she is more like the maitre d'hotel who sets the standards and ambience of the place.

Thevail: Your response is very eloquent and thoughtful.

Why, thank you. I've actually thought that since the Reagan years, when America collectively felt "bigger than life", a classic leading man sort of feeling.

Then Bill Clinton set a tone of self-indulgence and fun while making it very hip to make good money and spend it lavishly.

George Bush and Dick Cheney (he appears to be standing in for the nearly invisible first family) have set a tone of fear and self serving actions and rhetoric justified by self righteousness.

I cannot wait to find out what sort of tone Obama will set, if we can only get him elected.

I cannot tell you how much I fear the tone that would be set by John McCain.

I also fear the tone that McCain would set in the WHite House. McCain's 5+ years of incarceration and torture at the hands of the Vietnamese Communists have obviously left deep wounds in his psyche - he attempted suicide at one point. His wife is worth 100 million and stands beside him on the stump unsmiling, a severe presence, her hair pulled back tightly, her body covered up to her neck, a dour look on her face - the uber-conservative woman! I think McCain and his wife would set a grim tone of severity and austerity.