By P. Gunasegaram

IF THINGS go according to prediction, Barack Obama will become the next president of the United States of America, the first black person ever to do so and, for the first time in a while, a thinking and thoughtful US president to boot.

Call me prejudiced if you want but I am influenced by two books he wrote. The first was Dreams from My Father an autobiographical account about his search for his own roots, his life philosophy and the forces driving his career aspirations.

He established himself as a sensitive, reflective and contemplative writer in that 1995 book, but which only became a bestseller after it was reissued in 2004 when it began to get obvious that Obama may be shooting for the metaphorical stars.

His other book was The Audacity of Hope published in 2006 that became another bestseller. This book encapsulated very well his thoughts about law and politics and the role he expected to play in his chosen career.

The great thing about both books was that they were very readable - and sounded pretty honest - very rare for those written by politicians.

Said the New York Times when it reviewed the second book: "Barack Obama, the junior senator from Illinois and the Democratic Party's new rock star, is that rare politician who can actually write - and write movingly and genuinely about himself." Agreed.

I must confess that I have read a lot less of John McCain. I have not read what is perhaps his most celebrated work, Faith of My Fathers with Mark Salter but I took the trouble to read an excerpt online. That does not tell you a lot but does give you a flavour of sorts.

McCain has an interesting story to tell and the lessons that he has learnt from his forefathers. He talks about his navy days and there are accounts of his time in captivity in Vietnam during the war that the United States waged against Ho Chi Minh's Vietnam.

Obama, 47, was born in 1961, two years before President Kennedy's assassination, to a black Kenyan father and a white American mother from Kansas. His parents, who met in university, separated when he was two and subsequently divorced. His mother remarried an Indonesian. He lived in Jakarta and Hawaii for most of his childhood years.

Despite what some would consider a muddled life, Obama is an embodiment of the American dream, studying at Ivy League-status Columbia University in New York and Harvard. He became the first president of Harvard's Law Review, overseeing 80 editors.

That he has come this far in the US presidential campaign is surprising given that his last name rhymes with "Osama", his middle name is Hussein and both his father and stepfather were born Muslims. It also says much for how far the United States has moved forward over the years in race relations and attitudes, and demographics.

What is so endearing about Obama is his freshness and honesty in politics, stopping just short of naiveté, with the right mix of pragmatism and, yes, idealism.

He has no major scandals, speaks a whole lot of sense, is consistent in his approach and oh so convincing when you hear him speak, it touches your heart. You just can't catch him out.

And he has persistently refused to be dragged into mudslinging even if a lot of dirt has been thrown at him.

Despite some of most low-down provocation centred around his name, ancestry, liberalism and relative youth, he just stays above the fray.

John McCain, 72, could not be more different than Obama. He was born to Anglo-Saxon parents in 1936, a full quarter of a century before Obama, in the Panama Canal zone. His father and his paternal grandfather were four-star admirals in the US Navy.

He did not quite follow in their footsteps all the way but did join the Navy and retired as a Captain to enter politics in 1981.

His great claim to fame was that his plane was shot down over North Vietnam in 1967 during a bombing mission during the Vietnam war. He was captured by the North Vietnamese and systematically tortured. Overall he demonstrated great courage and resilience during captivity.

Some accounts described him in his early days as a Navy pilot as sub-par flier who took undue risks and was at times careless and reckless; during the early-to-mid 1960s, the planes he was flying crashed twice and once collided with power lines.

According to Wikipedia, his aviation skills improved over time, and he was seen as a good pilot, albeit one who tended to "push the envelope" in his flying.

To me, he pushed more than the proverbial envelope when he tried to pass of an incident when he was a pilot and sitting in the cockpit during the Cuban missile crisis of October 1962 (when Obama was a toddling year or so old) as evidence that he has been tested for the rigours of a US presidency.

Here's a news account of that which appeared on Oct 21: "I was on board the USS Enterprise," McCain, a former naval aviator, said in the capital city of Harrisburg (Pennsylvania).

"I sat in the cockpit, on the flight deck of the USS Enterprise, off Cuba. I had a target. My friends, you know how close we came to a nuclear war."

As the crowd of several thousand began to swell with cheers and applause, he added with dramatic effect: "America will not have a president who needs to be tested. I've been tested, my friends."

Now, that's stretching it - and we have not even talked about Sarah Palin yet.

People who are not afraid to think will remember that at the same time that the United States demanded the removal of nuclear missiles from Cuba at America's doorstep, the United States had theirs at the Soviet Union's backdoor in Turkey.

In other words, the over-rated President Kennedy had pushed the world to the brink of nuclear disaster to maintain a double standard. How unstatesmanlike!

If that is what McCain meant and means by preparedness and being ready to fight for his country, sitting in his cockpit, waiting for the action to start 46 years ago, not having changed his point of view one jot in that entire period, heaven help us all if he becomes president.

If McCain prevails and despite all the odds becomes the next president, then we can be sure of one thing - the God and country rhetoric we have had from the Bush era to mask a multitude of sins, will simply continue.

Not only the United States, the rest of the world will suffer for that.

P. Gunasegaram is managing editor of The Star. His choice for US president from the elections of Nov 4 is clearly Obama.