BARACK Obama’s candidacy is a big test to US democracy especially now that he has emerged as a very strong contender to the presidential seat.

Both Republicans and Democrats must now be at cross-roads, because they seem not to be seeing the ‘right candidate’ for them in all the three.

The Republican candidate John McCain has already secured easily his nomination for the next presidential election. He is now busy stretching his muscles for the next round where he will be meeting either Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton in the race.

John McCain is man I would not see winning the elections if the American voters were to go by real democracy. He has a wide range of factors that go against him.

Being a Republican and a sympathiser of the so called Bush war in Iraq makes him a poor contender. Most Americans do not want the war and have protested against it several times.

He (John McCain) comes at a time when the US financial institutions are in the worst crisis and degeneration that can only be compared to the one US had after World War Two.

Though John McCain remains optimistic as far as winning the elections are concerned and is busy touring some strategic countries including Iraq, he is not expected to come with any different political agenda. He is thus seen by most Americans- Democrats and Republicans alike- as a man of no change and this greatly discredits him.

Apart from capitalising on the fact that the Democrats never fielded a candidate who had no other external factors against him or her, John McCain would be virtually out of race. And above all, he is not eloquent in his speeches unlike the other two Democratic candidates who are so articulate. This leaves him completely out, if we are to go by elections free of prejudice.

The democratic leader Hillary Clinton on the other hand is relatively stronger than John McCain. She is very eloquent and articulate when presenting his political agenda and has managed to attract a number of voters. She has a good political agenda that is however not different from other candidates’. Her future policy on the Iraq war for example, is not different from that of Obama.

She however has some factors against her as a woman aspiring to be the President of the giant America. She is also suffering from the fact that critics of his husband and former US President, Bill Clinton, say that if she is put in the White House, they will be reduplicating the failures.

I see this as the great undoing of Hillary! She is forced to be on the defensive in that line. This has kept her trailing Obama and some times made her camp desperate. It is this desperate state, that has further sunken her into failure in many states. Accusations against Obama based on his background, colour, etc, that were made, only ended being detrimental to Hillary’s camp. Neither the Democrats nor the Republics admired such accusations. They may be having the segregation in their minds but they do not want to go public. She however remains the second best candidate after Obama.

Obama is a young man of great charisma and a strong personal character which is rare. He is very intelligent, eloquent, and articulate.

He has not only caused panic in Clinton’s camp but also in John MacCain’s. He outsmarts them all in the race and the Americans are beginning to worry what would happen if the young energetic man comes to power.

I have read between the lines of many Americans, especially the older ones; they still want to distance themselves from him basing on his background, the black African origin. They even went as far as branding him a Moslem; this is all panic the superb candidate is causing.Some have likened him to the former US president J.F Kennedy while others have denied their similarities. All these comparisons are unnecessary and only show how good the candidate is.

I therefore without any doubt see Barak Obama as the number one contender in the 2008 US presidential elections. He is there to test the American democracy for they are now having a great challenge. They will either go with sentiments or go with reality and vote for the best candidate, Barak Obama.