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 That's a bigger job for Obama than for most other presidential candidates.
At 46, he's younger than the others. He's a newcomer to the national scene, so voters haven't had as much time to weigh his strengths and weaknesses. And Obama can't reassure voters by pointing out how he handled some high-profile personal or political crisis.
John McCain can talk about the searing experience of being a prisoner of war. Rudy Giuliani, who has abandoned his run for the presidency, was mayor of New York during the Sept. 11 terrorist attack. Hillary Rodham Clinton has faced years of criticism from the right.
The closest Obama comes to such a crisis point is his loss in a race for Congress. The loss could have derailed his political career, but he quickly bounced back to launch
-- and win -- a longshot bid for the U.S. Senate.
Those who know Obama scoff at the idea that he might not be tough enough.
"Barack is a plenty cool customer. He's not a person who is easily rattled," said Judson Miner, his former law partner.
Some of his friends argue that Obama's entire life has been a test of his character
-- growing up half-white and half-black, no father, moving between Hawaii and Indonesia, being away from his mother for extended periods.
It's a view shared by one expert on presidential leadership.
"From what I know about the man's life, goodness, I'm impressed that he's been able to get as far as he's gotten," said Warren Bennis, founding chairman of the Leadership Institute at the University of Southern California.
Obama has been in the Senate for just three years. Before that he served in the Illinois legislature, practiced law and taught at the University of Chicago. He's been in a couple of tough political races, but the major challenge always came in the primary
-- he has never faced a serious Republican opponent.
Clinton is using her tough-as-Kevlar image as a selling point in the Democratic primary, telling voters she can handle whatever Republicans might throw at her.
"I'm used to taking the incoming fire," she said in a recent debate. "... They've been after me for 16 years, and much to their dismay I am still here."
Meanwhile, her husband, former President Clinton, has said voting for Obama amounts to "a roll of the dice."
Their comments are designed to raise questions about Obama in the voters' minds. Would he wilt amid the harsh attacks, and perhaps dirty tricks, of the general election? Could he handle the pressures of the White House?
Obama has rejected any suggestion that he's not tough enough.
"I come from Chicago politics. We're accustomed to rough and tumble," he said. "I don't expect this to be a cakewalk."
Obama's campaign insists that he's more than ready to fight back, if necessary, against any dirty campaign tactics. They note his swift response last year to false reports that he attended a radical Islamic school and his more recent challenges to the Clintons' critical comments.
Bill Clinton dismissed Obama's opposition to the Iraq war as a fairy tale and compared his victory in South Carolina to the victories of a far different black candidate, Jesse Jackson. Hillary Clinton accused him of praising Ronald Reagan's policies and of being soft in his support of abortion rights. Clinton campaign surrogates made allusions to Obama's youthful drug use.
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 Obama responded by publicly criticizing the former president's comments, stopping just short of calling him a liar. He went on the offensive against Hillary Clinton in a recent debate, calling her a corporate lawyer who served on the board of Wal-Mart and questioning her honesty.
"We do have to trust our leaders and what they say," Obama said, adding: "Consistency matters. Truthfulness during campaigns makes a difference."
"He made very clear that he wasn't going to stand for his record being distorted," said friend and campaign adviser Valerie Jarrett.
People who know Obama cite two traits they think would help him through any crisis: a tenacity that keeps him from quitting, and analytical skills that allow him to solve problems instead of getting rattled.
The clearest example of his tenacity might be the aftermath of his race against Rep. Bobby Rush in 2000. He challenged a powerful Democrat and lost badly. Afterward, it looked like he would have little chance of rising above his spot in the Illinois legislature, and he thought about getting out of politics altogether.
"His career was over. How did he deal with that? He regrouped," said Jerry Kellman, who gave Obama his first job in Chicago after college.
Two years after getting thumped by Rush, Obama had the confidence to take another gamble and begin running for the Senate. He wound up winning and making a national name for himself.
Obama is often described as analytical, someone who can step back from a problem, examine it coolly and then decide what action to take.
"I think he'd be great in a crisis. He's got that sort of calm demeanor and keeps his wits about him," said John Bouman, president of the Sargent Shriver National Center on Poverty Law, who has worked with Obama on legislative issues.
"I don't see him getting into 'mayday' mode," agreed former campaign aide Dan Shomon.
Obama's defenders also argue that he isn't really a bigger question mark than the other candidates. The job of president is so challenging, they say, that there's no telling how someone will react, no matter how long he's been on the national stage.
"The reality is, you don't know more about how McCain as an individual would respond if all the responsibility were on his shoulders," said Miner, the former law partner. "You don't know any more about Senator Clinton or Senator (John) Edwards."
State Sen. Bill Brady, a Republican who worked with Obama in the Illinois legislature, said no one can be fully prepared for the presidency, but they can have useful experience
-- particularly the responsibility of running a city or state or military unit.
Obama lacks that experience, he noted.
"Could someone hit a grand slam on their first try at running something?" Brady said. "Yes, but you learn as much from your losses in your experience of running things as you do your successes, and he doesn't have either."
[Associated
Press; By CHRISTOPHER WILLS]
Copyright 2007 The Associated
Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
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