I am voting for the next president, and this is what I am looking for:

One who presents himself with cooperative authority; who listens, contemplates, then makes reasoned action; who speaks well; is strong in his principles but amiable in any exchange; who has impeccable education and is knowledgeable of the larger world; who knows when to ask for advice, and from whom to receive it; who will risk thinking “out of the box” for solutions.

That is why I am voting for Barack Obama.

I am convinced that he knows the ills of the economy and their effect on the middle class; that he has compassion and policies to help the disadvantaged; and can foresee much economic improvement in jobs through the 21st century’s industrial tasks of greening America and upgrading the country’s infrastructure.

Obama is the man who best personifies what I am looking for.

Burt deFrees, Rumford Center