Barack Obama was erect and confident, with long, purposeful strides as he entered the room to ask our support for his U.S. Senate campaign. We did not conduct an interview, we carried on a discussion. His responses were reasoned and thoughtful — not the memorized sound bites we are so accustomed to. He quoted Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan, noting “Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts.” He often responded to questions with questions of his own. Clearly he was using the opportunity just as much as we were.

He left with our endorsement. He surprised us again when, after he won, he came back to thank us and to talk about issues some more. During that campaign came the historic speech at the 2004 Democratic National Convention where he reminded the country that we are not a nation of blacks and whites, liberals and conservatives, or red states and blue states, but one nation that needs to pull together in ways it hasn’t in recent years.

The man now on the campaign stump is different from the one we sat around the table with on a number of occasions. He has forgotten the Moynihan quote and come up with his own facts.During the campaign, we have seen gaffs by Sen. Obama in his association with the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. and 1960s-era radical Bill Ayers. We have seen a lot of dodging and weaving as he tries to explain his votes in opposition to Illinois bills to provide protection to “born alive” infants, which, regardless of your position on abortion, are too far to the extreme. And while we understand his support of organized labor, Sen. Obama is dead wrong in his blanket support of the Employee Free Choice Act, which would strip workers and employers of the right to hold a secret ballot. It would replace it with a so-called “card check” in which unionization occurs when half the workers sign cards saying they favor union representation. That is not the democratic way and opens the door for wide-spread intimidation and even fraud. It must be changed.

Clearly the campaign has changed Sen. McCain as well. We could embrace the candidacy of McCain, the maverick senator. But that is not the John McCain we have seen during the campaign. His vision has apparently been blurred by political advisers. The man willing to speak the truth — even if unpopular — has become more of a politician and that has been reflected in changes on several issues. Sen. Obama’s campaign understands how the future can be impacted by the Internet, social networks, blogs and new media. Sen. McCain’s is still rooted in the 20th century political tactics.

Neither candidate has given us specific information about how he would curb federal spending. Both sides have made promises they can’t keep, requiring checks our government can’t afford to cash. The promises of a campaign often are not the realities of history. Politics and compromise have a way of changing things along the way.

A lot has been made of “experience” in this campaign. Clearly Mr. McCain leads in that regard. But experience means nothing without good judgment and temperament. Sen. Obama has remained composed during a long and difficult campaign -- first against Sen. Hillary Clinton and now against Sen. McCain. Meanwhile Sen. McCain has been unpredictable, sometimes condescending, even angry. When the economic crisis hit, he suspended his campaign, then unsuspended it, and in the end never weighed in on the solution.

Now Quad-Citians need to make a choice. Strip away the pressures of the campaign, and influence of advisors, and there is hope that Sen. Obama will return to being the man who so impressed us and Sen. McCain could again become the maverick who is not afraid to say what needs to be said instead of what is politically expedient.

Sen. McCain is a good man who would be a good president. Sen. Obama listens, learns and builds a consensus. The endorsements of respected Republicans like former Rep. Jim Leach and former Sec. of State Colin Powell are a testament to that ability. He has energized several generations of Americans who had given up on government as being able to positively influence their lives.Americans want to pull together. They don’t want to live in red states or blue states — just in the United States. They want to put these troubled times behind them, but they need someone to show them the way. In his book “The Audacity of Hope,” Sen. Obama recalled talking politics and playing poker with legislators like former state Sen. Denny Jacobs of East Moline. “I would partner up with even the most conservative colleagues to work on a piece of legislation, and over a poker game or a beer we might conclude that we had more in common than we publicly cared to admit.”

“I imagine (citizens) are waiting for a politics with the maturity to balance idealism and realism, to distinguish between what can and cannot be compromised, to admit the possibility that the other side might sometimes have a point ... They are out there waiting for the Republicans and Democrats to catch up with them,” he wrote.

Electing either ticket brings risk. The Obama that we first met, and believe is still there behind the veil of campaign politics, is a risk worth taking. He is right about our demands for political change and he is the best hope for pulling this nation together. He has shown through two tough presidential campaigns that he has the temperament, confidence and judgment to be president, and has again earned our endorsement -- this time as president of the United States.