I have never used this essay to endorse a political candidate or party, and I'm not going to start now. But it's impossible not to notice the phenomenon that is Barack Obama. Today's New York Times carries a long story on his visit to New Hampshire yesterday. Many consider him the Democratic Party's strongest alternative to Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton as a presidential contender.

The first-term senator from Illinois came to the state for a book signing in Portsmouth and a victory rally for the New Hampshire Democratic Party. Both events sold out days ago. A total of 2,500 people turned out to see him. Some at the events said that the senator exceeded their expectations. But other Democrats said they thought that someone with Mr. Obama's experience had little chance of winning a national election. One said, "I think he's a serious candidate, but I don't think he has great potential. No track record, and there are too many guys ahead of him in line." Mr. Obama's response: if he does run for president, "at the end of the process people will know me pretty well, and they'll have a pretty good sense of whether I'm qualified or not."

If you had been voting for King 20 centuries ago, who would have gotten your support? Herod the Great certainly wanted it. He had begun the process of rebuilding the Jewish Temple, creating the most lavish structure the nation had ever seen. But his despotic ways demonstrated a character you knew you could not trust. His massacre of the Bethlehem babies proved his horrific cruelty.

Caesar Augustus was obviously running for the position. His campaign slogan: "He found the Empire brick and left it marble." But he enslaved millions of people in his grandiose expansion of his realm. Mattathias ben Theophilus was most likely the Jewish high priest. He and his Sadducees dominated the religious politics of the day, but their support of the hated Romans made them unpopular with the masses.

One candidate you probably wouldn't have considered was a baby born to a Galilean peasant teenager and her carpenter husband, laid in a feed trough in a cow stall. But take Mr. Obama's advice: examine his candidacy now that you know him. Herod died in infamy; Augustus and the Sadducees are gone and forgotten; but this Child is the leader of the mightiest spiritual movement in human history. Here's the best way to decide if the Christ of Christmas should be your King: crown him. Submit to his Lordship today. If you serve him as your Lord, you'll have "a pretty good sense of whether he's qualified or not." I believe you'll soon discover that you made the right choice.

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