Barring some heinous occurrence, I'm now ready to lay good money on an Obama presidency. The primary battle is over in all but name--Clinton's last firewall, namely Pennsylvania, while it will still probably be a putative Clinton victory, due to the strength of the DLC machine there and the efforts of the repulsive Ed Rendell, will in likelihood be by such a small margin that it will in fact be a crushing blow to the already crippled Clinton machine. John MCCain is a joke of a candidate--given the mildest examination his statements and positions he evaporates into a cheap comedy. Obama will effortlessly fillet him, with humour and style, and the choice will be made more than clear.

But then what?

We're mired in a tragic waste of a war. Even assuming we decided to exit tomorrow, the logistics of withdrawing 400,000-odd troops through a hostile landscape with only one real escape route are mind-boggingly complex, and beg the question of who and what ends up controlling 11% or so of the world's rapidly dwindling oil supply.

Peak oil is upon us, and no clear solution in sight. IN fact, with the addition of China and India into the brotherhood of "first world nations", the problem's about to get a lot worse.

Climate change is a ticking time bomb of global proportions that nobody has any clear idea how to defuse, short of dictatorial policies that would in all likelihood cause a genuine revolution. By these I mean things like seizing the oil companies and putting their profits toward alternate fuel production and infrastructure replacement; forcing low mileage cars and trucks into the junk heap; junking coal-fired power plants, restricting travel... IN other words, ain't gonna happen.

Our international economy is teetering.

Our bureaucracies are infested with crooks and cronies.

And Malthus' clock is still ticking.

I personally think Obama is the first true leader to emerge from the whorehouse of federal politics since Robert Kennedy, and I support him wholeheartedly, but he is inheriting a tornado.