On at least a hundred occasions, I’ve heard the election of Barak Obama to the Senate trumpeted as one of the few pieces of “good news” for Democrats in the recent elections. While I’d agree that the take-over of a formerly Republican Senate seat ought to be considered “good news” I’d disagree with those who imbue the arrival on the scene of Senator-elect Barack Obama with greater significance. Despite the fantasies of more than a few Barack Obama will never be the President of the United States.

To begin with, there are some obvious problems. Leaving aside whether a black man would have specific difficulties in being elected President (and, frankly, I think that most of the disadvantages of skin color would be offset by other advantages), I think that someone whose name is one letter removed from “Osama” and whose farther was a Moslem will obviously be starting with some serious disadvantages.

And, while I’m at it, I’ll also ad that there are (unconfirmed) rumours that Obama himself is secretly a Muslim. Now, I don’t believe them but, if Obama ever runs for President, I won’t mind spreading them. There’s also the more serious matter of his father’s reported involvement with Mau Mau terrorists in Kenya, something else which would probably come up in a Presidential campaign.

But let’s leave all of that aside for now: the “Imams for Truth” are least four (and more probably eight or twelve) years away. The real thing which will ensure that Barack Obama will never be President is much simpler than that: he’s an ultra-liberal.

Osama (I mean Obama) is so liberal that he makes John Kerry look like Bob Dornan. In fact, the odds are that he would have ended up being rejected as too liberal for Illinois were it not for the three fortunate occurrences:

1) The bizarre fall of GOP Senate candidate Jack Ryan.

2) The strong (but mostly platitude-filled) speech that Obama gave to the Democratic National Convention.

3) The even more bizarre decision to select Alan Keyes as the Republican candidate for the Senate in Illinois.

Let’s face it: Keyes did literally as badly as a candidate could do. If the Republicans picked a mentally-disabled homosexual named “Adolf Stalin Bin Laden” they probably would have won about as many votes. We should not confuse Republican folly for Democratic strength.

A tough campaign would have outed Barack Obama as a liberal extremist on every issue from abortion to gay marriage to social spending to taxes to the War on Terrorism. When his views are examined, it’s entirely clear that Obama falls into the same category as other far-left Democratic Senators, such as Barbara Boxer of California or Patti Murray of Washington who no rational person considers a possible future candidate for the Presidency.

I think that it’s far more likely that Obama will turn out to be a one-term Senator like Carol Mosley-Braun and be defeated in 2010 than it is that he’ll manage to make his way to the White House.

So why the “Obama for President” surge in some quarters? The reason for this must be obvious: the Democratic benches, especially those of the left-wing of the Democratic Party, are pretty much empty at the present time.

The striking thing about the race for the Republican nomination in 2008 is the depth and diversity of the field. Plausible contenders for the Presidency in 2008 on the Republican side include everything from liberal Republicans like the heroic former Mayor of New York City, Rudy Giuliani, to center-right stalwarts like John McCain, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist and Nebraska Senator Chuck Hagel, to reformist conservative Governors like Bill Owens in Colorado, Mitt Romney in Massachusetts, Hayley Barbour in Mississippi and Mark Sanford in South Carolina, to conservative heroes like Kansas Senator Sam Brownback or Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum.

All that, I might add, leaves out the three big names which could potentially shake up the race: Florida Governor Jeb Bush, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and Vice President Dick Cheney. Jeb Bush says he won’t run, but he might. Arnold would like to run, but the Constitution says that he can’t, but it might well be changed. Vice President Cheney has said he isn’t running, but you should never believe someone when they say “never” in politics.

Further down the road, Republicans like Representative Bobby Jindal of Louisiana and former Congressmen JC Watts of Oklahoma might someday be contenders for the White House.

Compare this to the Democratic field which consists of a number of largely uninspiring or flawed personalities. New York Senator and former First Lady Hillary Clinton is the obvious front-runner but, beyond her, just who is there?

Former Vermont Governor and certifiable nutcase Howard Dean will probably run again, but I doubt if he’ll even get half as far as he did the last time around. John Kerry might try, but I doubt if the Democrats will make that mistake again. John Edwards, without an office for four years and with an unimpressive Vice Presidential campaign in his past might try, but he’ll fare as well as Joe Lieberman did this year or as Bob Dole did in 1980.

Who else do the Democrats have waiting in the wings? New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, who couldn’t even carry his own state for John Kerry even after it went for Al Gore four years ago? Evan Bayh, who seems to come up whenever this is discussed without generating any enthusiasm on the part of anyone?

The Democratic talent pool literally pretty much dries up at this point. Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm might make an attractive candidate, but she can’t run without the Constitution being amended. Al Gore could conceivably run again, but the odds of him being committed to a home for the criminally insane are much higher than those of his winning the nomination. Harold Ford Jr. might be an attractive candidate someday but, to date, he’s won no office higher than US Representative (and, unless he wants to take on Majority Leader Bill Frist or run against a Democratic Governor in a primary in 2006, he won’t have a chance at one for some time) and, in any case, he’ll be thirty-seven years old on the day of the New Hampshire Primary in 2008. Mark Warner has been mentioned by a few people, but a single term as the tax-raising Governor of Virginia does not make someone a contender for the Presidency.

So it’s little wonder that some Democrats have eager embraced Obama: they’re running out of options. A drowning man will hold onto anything.