Editor, According to the demographics, I should be voting for Hillary Clinton: I'm a white, 60-year-old, highly educated woman from the Northeast. But I'm supporting Barack Obama. I've waited all my life for a viable woman candidate for the presidency, but this is not the right woman. I want a woman of the highest ability and virtue, who would serve as a glorious role model to all young women. Hillary Clinton is not that woman.

She rode into power with her husband, and together they've acquired a long and seriously flawed history of self-serving and secretive financial and political dealings. The most cursory research will prove that true. (For starters, why will she not release her tax returns - as Obama has done - unless she wins the nomination? What has she got to hide?) She started out her political life supporting the racist Barry Goldwater - what does that mean about her values and judgment? She is as comfortable with deception and trickery as George Bush. When I hear woman saying, "Oh, but that's how you get things done in Washington," I literally cringe.

I am passionately supporting Barack Obama. He can beat the Republicans; Clinton cannot. Obama has attracted Independents and even Republicans to his camp, and in a general election they would vote for him, but not for Clinton. Clinton voted for the war, and has never apologized for it. Obama has spoken out against it from the beginning. Obama brings us hope-and not just that. Take a serious look at his ideas and experience. Take a look at his website -- it's all there.

Please, I beg of you, Sisters young and old: wait for the right woman. Then we can be proud.

Diane Wald Dedham, MA