you thought US president is very powerful, in fact, NOT.
he has no POWER to regulate ordinary people's life,
no POWER to decide many things, he has no power change economic policy
foreign policy or anything else, more or less like a secular
spiritual leader, think about poor president Clinton,
how big trouble he got simply by playing a cigar with a naughty jewish girl.

therefore, even you can do a very good job if you are allowed
and you have average IQ,
President Clinton's influence is much less than Briney Spear
President Bush's influence is much less than Joel Osteen

This is USA,
if a president in USA is as powerful as in China,
USA is no longer USA,

either Obama or McCain could be a very good president,
but liberal ideas in general are very harmful to everybody,
if McCain lose, nothing surprising because he is not conservative
enough, Kerry lost because he was too liberal,
most probably Obama wins because he behaves like a moderate liberal
like Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter. It is a general rule,

moderate conservative (like Bob Dole) usually LOSE
super liberal (like Kerry ) usually LOSE

super conservative usually WIN
liberal who can use church language usually WIN (Jimmy carter, Bill Clinton)

nothing to do with policy
simply
people's FEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEling