Poor Kirk Watson. The Texas state senator and former Austin mayor appeared last week on MSNBC’s Hardball with Chris Matthews to explain why he was supporting Barack Obama for president. And, well, let’s just say he was about as prepared for the moment as I was for my Psych 209 prelim.

CM: You’re a big Barack supporter, right, Senator?

CM: Well, that’s a problem, isn’t it?

Yes it is.

To be fair, Watson’s deer-in-the-headlights impression says more about him than it does about Obama. But if a high-profile surrogate can’t point out a single Obama accomplishment, it suggests that the vast majority of Obama’s mostly young and/or clueless supporters probably can’t either. Most know just the basics about the junior Illinois senator — that he’s a likable guy, that he gives inspirational speeches, and that he’s written a best-selling book (which, incidentally, I read and enjoyed).

We could say the same of most prominent televangelists, yet I don’t see Joel Osteen or Rick Warren forming exploratory committees for 2012. So why exactly is Barack Obama running for president? I’ve tried to figure that one out, but it’s hard asking candid questions about a demigod. Raising doubts about Obama on a college campus is like blaspheming the prophet Mohammed in Saudi Arabia — you do so at your own risk. The religious zeal with which so many students support Obama allows them to commit the cardinal sin of religion: They are unwilling or incapable of asking questions that might challenge their cherished premise. You might as well be talking to a missionary.

“We believe Barack Obama would be a great president.”

And why do you believe this?

“Because Barack Obama would be a great president.”

Wait a sec, you can’t use circular logic like that.

“Yes we can!”

Let me ask you, dear reader, since you are in all likelihood a Barack Obama supporter: What exactly qualifies Barack Obama to be president of the United States? It’s a two-part question, really. One, what in your mind qualifies somebody to be president? And two, how does your man meet those qualifications? I think we can all agree that a president needs to be intelligent, which Obama clearly is. But surely there must be more to it than that. Call me old-fashioned, but I believe one ought to have actually accomplished something before inheriting the Oval Office.

More to the point, before we trust someone with most important job in the world, is it too much to ask that he or she first hold a consequential job — whatever it may be — and do it well? Dwight Eisenhower was a victorious World War II general. Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton were successful governors for eight and twelve years, respectively. Even the purportedly inexperienced John F. Kennedy, to whom many now compare Obama, served fourteen years in Congress — six in the House, eight in the Senate. Obama’s experience? Four years in the Senate (only two of which he’s actually been around).

Dare I raise the possibility that we as a country are lowering our presidential standards simply because Obama is black? Let’s be honest with ourselves for a moment: Would a white man with Obama’s rhetorical talents and personal charm — call him Barry O’Hara — have been able to overcome such a glaring experience deficit?

If Hillary Clinton fails to win both Texas and Ohio tonight, Obama will begin his general-election campaign against John McCain, a man who any fair-minded person will concede has served this country honorably for over fifty years. Will we as Americans be so desperately eager to make history that we shun a clearly qualified candidate who happens to be a white male, and instead rush the election of a man who could — and I mean this — be a fantastic president with four or eight more years of experience and wisdom? Are we that titillated by, as Joe Biden put it, “the first mainstream African-American [candidate] who is bright and articulate and clean and a nice-looking guy?” Will Americans, in other words, practice voting-booth affirmative action?

When Cornell accepts a less-qualified minority applicant, it directly affects only one person — namely, the schmuck who happens to suffer from politically unprotected pigmentation. If enough Americans opt for a less-qualified candidate simply because he’s black, it will affect all of us.

Obama supporters are attacking Hillary Clinton for her commercial in which she raises the specter of a crisis that summons the commander-in-chief to the phone at 3 a.m. She’s fear-mongering, they cry. But they don’t challenge her point because, well, it’s true: We live in a dangerous world, and Barack Obama has virtually no national-security or foreign-policy experience. But wait, you say, neither did George W. Bush!

Exactly.

Ben Birnbaum is a senior in the College of Arts and Sciences. He can be contacted at bbirnbaum@cornellsun.com. Infomaniacs Anonymous appears Tuesdays.