OBAMA OPENS DOUBLE-DIGIT LEAD IN N.H.

U.S. Senator Barack Obama, D-Illinois, has opened a double-digit lead over Hillary Rodham Clinton in the New Hampshire pre-primary polls.

With the New Hampshire Primary looming in roughly 48 hours, Obama seems to be building upon his major victory in the Iowa Caucuses.

As for Mrs. Clinton, her disappointing 3rd-place showing in Iowa has her campaign totally stunned and frantically searching for a way to minimize the impact of her losses and come up with a new strategy that will put her back in the lead.

But New Hampshire is not the end of Mrs. Clinton's woes. The South Carolina Primary is coming up quickly in January, and once again the former First Lady finds herself losing her footing in a state where she once held a solid lead.

Polls are showing that Barack Obama is continuing to gain ground in South Carolina, with some showing him neck-and-neck with Mrs. Clinton while others show him in a solid lead.

Many pundits in the state expect that Obama will win South Carolina as well.

This highlights a scenario to which The Liberty Sphere pointed several months ago in which we predicted that Mrs. Clinton would lose the first three major primaries to Obama. While this will certainly give the Illinois Senator a great deal of momentum, we expect that momentum to come to screeching halt by the time the Florida Primary rolls around.

By then more rationally-minded Democrats will have had time to pause to consider just how terribly risky and dangerous it is to support a political novice who has ZERO foreign policy knowledge.

The same can be said for Mike Huckabee on the Republican side.

Neither candidate has the experience or the gravitas to represent the most powerful nation on earth on the world stage in an era where one single mistake could result in a mushroom cloud over a U.S. city.

And let's not forget the continuing volatility of Pakistan--a major nuclear power.

Unfortunately for the Democrats, the two candidates who had the most experience in these matters have dropped out of the race--Joe Biden and Chris Dodd. The rest are essentially political novices.

Even Mrs. Clinton is to be preferred over Obama or Edwards, given that the former First Lady has at least some practical knowledge of world politics, though not extensive.

When it comes to foreign policy and world terrorism the Republicans still have a distinct advantage over the Democrats, with the exception of Mike Huckabee who showed us recently that his grasp of the situation in Pakistan is alarmingly lacking.

Fred Thompson, Duncan Hunter, John McCain, Ron Paul each have considerable experience, wisdom, and gravitas to deal with volatile situations on the world stage.

Thus, when the Democrats come back to their senses, we suspect that they will realize that Hillary, even with all of her baggage and weaknesses, is their best bet.