Standing in front of the Old Capitol Building in Springfield, Illinois, in some strange homage to Abraham Lincoln, Barack Obama announced his intentions to become the next President of the United States. Nobody was really surprised. Despite his insistence that he would not be running for the White House in 2008, Obama apparently loves to read his own press and believes he can win this thing. More on that in a moment.

There have been few elections that looked to be as promising as the 2008 presidential election has been looking in recent weeks. This election will be the first time since 1928 that neither a sitting President nor a sitting Vice President will be a declared candidate. It will be the first time since 1952 that neither party will nominate a sitting President or Vice President as its candidate.

I think it’s also interesting to note that if Hillary Clinton is elected as either President or Vice President, it will continue a an unbroken string of either a Bush or a Clinton on the winning ticket since 1980, lasting until 2012, at least. That’s 32 years. So much for America lacking royalty.

Returning to Obama, there are some who think that his ascendance is a given. I can see how Obama looks really good to a lot of people … right now. But this is a long fight, and some veteran pugilists have entered the arena. The heaviest hitter clearly must be Hillary Clinton, whose arsenal includes her husband and his fundraising network. This campaign’s roots stretch from New York, through DC, and back to Arkansas. This will be no fly-by-night operation. You don’t want to be looking at the barrel of the Hillary in 2008 howitzer.

Obama has charisma, which is so important in presidential politics these days, just ask Al Gore and John Kerry. His heritage is also very unique — a “black” man who’s really half white and half Kenyan, rasied by his white mother, and a graduate of Harvard Law School. But the operating question for anyone considering a vote for Obama should be, “Is he qualified to be President?” And I don’t just mean qualified to hold the office. I also mean qualified to run and survive a campaign.

In his brief political career, Obama has never had to really wage a serious campaign against a serious opponent. In his bid for Illinois State Senate in 2002, Obama ran unopposed. In his bid for the the U.S. Senate in 2004, his opponent was Alan Keyes — a perennial Republican loser from Maryland who took on Obama with the understanding that Illinois Republicans would help him pay off his debt from two previous Senate campaigns in Maryland. Keyes was hardly a formidable opponent.

Now, with a little over two years of experience in the U.S. Senate, and a combined political career of ten years — none of which includes executive experience — Obama is going to run a nationwide campaign for the Presidency … against Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, Joe Biden, and possibly Al Gore. I don’t care how good his rhetoric might be. Obama is in for the fight of his life.