4 presidential finalists present a clear choice

So if I were at a Colorado Democratic caucus session this Tuesday, would I side with the charismatic, exciting, young Barack Obama, the first black with a realistic chance of making it to the White House or with the very bright, supremely articulate Hillary Rodham Clinton, the first woman to have such a chance?

And if I showed up at a Republican caucus, would I vote for John McCain, the war hero who has stood tall during this country's effort to beat back terrorism or maybe for the certifiably brilliant, managerially gifted Mitt Romney?

Although I live in Colorado and am entitled to vote in the general election, I won't be able to do any of the above because I am registered as an independent. That means my participation in any caucus will be limited to thinking about what I might do if I could, starting with the extraordinary Obama.

He is an amazing figure who at times emanates a rare combination of elegance, decency, sincerity and intellect, and someone whose oratory fills the air with grand emotion, as if he were singing a magnificent aria. You sense something special about him while realizing that personal magnetism can have its dangers and is scarcely the final word about a candidate. Content counts.

In his case, the content is not always impressive. His constant talk about "hope" has come to seem a melodramatic muddle that assumes we're caught up in intolerable circumstances we've almost lost the spirit to address. In a country as dynamic, prosperous, full of opportunity, generous, democratically directed and free as this one, that is silliness writ large.

He speaks of bringing us together, but he's no beacon of a middle way; his record is one of unveering liberalism occasionally contemptuous of the other side.

There's something frightening about him as well: his insistence on a timetable for U.S. withdrawal from Iraq, a stand that could mean unspeakable genocide and a victory for terrorists who might then bring mass murder to our cities.

Clinton, on this issue, appears more mature than Obama, wanting to start withdrawals right away while leaving some for special operations as needed. It's not easy to be sure of her stand, though; she has been all over the map on troop withdrawal. While a degree of indefiniteness on some matters isn't entirely bad, she has been overcalculating on most. Where she seems to mean what she says is on her socialist-tinged economic ideas. If she managed to put them into effect, the nation would rot.