I think it sounds pretty good!

Roll that around on your tounge for a while. Say it out loud. Try, “Barack Hussein Obama, 44th President of the United States of America” instead.

Everyone, including supporters of McCain, better hope and pray that they wake up on Wednesday morning saying that. And it’s not just because a McCain presidency would continue the Bush train wreck. (It would, but that’s not the point.)

The point is that if, somehow, Obama were to lose after being this far up in the polls just a few days before the election, nobody would believe it. I, for one, would not believe it. However they tried to paint it, it would tear this nation apart and it would put us in the pit with countries like Zambia and Burma where rigged elections are part of everyday life.

Let me make this more real for you.

I know it will be a stretch for readers here in Color Country, but imagine, say, “Mitt Romney” was ahead by 8 to 16 points (depending on the poll) just a few days before the election and was just about to be the very first Mormon elected to the presidency. And somehow, he lost anyway. Would you believe it? Or would you be convinced that “the fix was in” and start loading your deer rifle?

So … why can’t other people, people who have overcome incredible hardship and adversity just like your people, think the same way about a dream they have had for over a century?

The international backlash would be pretty bad too. Bush has dragged our reputation through the mud for eight years now, but there are still people out there who think that we’re not beyond hope. And most of those people who can’t vote directly in our election spell hope: “Obama.”

Most people don’t seem to realize how much our present standard of living depends on continued cooperation, at least, in other countries. I read a front page article in the leading newspaper in China last week (so it must have been approved by the ruling Communist Party) advocating that the world abandon the U.S. Dollar for international trade. The article argued that this practice was making things worse for everybody due to US financial mismanagement; and the US was enriching themselves at the expense of everybody else as long as it continued.

All they need is a really good excuse.

With Obama up so far this close to the election, any imagined justification would make us look horrible. The only possibilities I can think of are:

• Widespread and gross fraud at the polls.

When Bush stole the 2000 election, it was at least close (remember, Gore won the popular vote by any count) and confined to one state (controlled by his brother). If that was to be tried this time, it would have to be done in at least half a dozen states.

• Complete incompetence of poll takers.

Everybody points to Truman in 1948. Dewey wasn’t up as far as Obama is now and this isn’t 1948. Whether you like polls or not, they are a scientific process. Do you really want to be the country that can’t even count straight?

• The “Bradley” effect.

It’s possible that millions of Americans are simply closet racists and will lie and then vote against a black man anyway. I would hate to think that’s true, however. That’s not the country I want America to be.

No matter who you think ’should have’ won, it will be a lot better for all of us when this is over and Obama can get on with the work of trying to undo the damage Bush has done.