Well first off, how about doing away with that rancor and focusing on healing the division? I think that would be an excellent place to start.
As for comments on what I like about Obama, well I've sorta already made many, at least by implication and mostly in discussing his (second) book (haven't read the first), in other posts. I'll find some here and link to them, if you like, but I have also concurred with others here (including some who don't seem to be typical Democrat/liberal types) in that he, at least so far, seems to be very decent and sincere, something that cannot easily be said about many politicians anywhere and something I don't find it easy to say about many other candidates in this race, including others whose policies I might otherwise be in agreement with, generally speaking. But certainly there are other aspects of his character and background that I find very appealing, such as his international experiences and perspective, and also particular issues on which I think he can help a lot, such as (not surprisingly) race (and notably, by his own veryt logical extension in that book, immigration).
Gets at some things indirectly, but
this thread might be of interest... Same goes for
this one... On this same thread, posts
here,
here and maybe also
here might be of interest to you. But probably more than those would be what he's written. I thought his second book was slow, especially in getting started, but picked up quite nicely in the middle chapters, which is where I think I started to get this idea of not just a candidate with views more preferable to me personally going in to do battle in the same ways we've been seeing (in keeping with the division), but a candidate who might be able to do more and work towards more unity and less rancor, as well. You'll see that from the get-go in his second book, at least, he discusses a fair amount the loss of older, more bipartisan sentiment in the Senate, for example. And that's just the start.
Try it if you're interested.
Steve