Who is Barack Obama?

Clinton says he’s not “tested.”

But a White House win would be his chance to prove her wrong.

Can he do it? Not if he keeps insisting on thinking of himself as a law professor who turned to politics to make the world a better place.

If Obama really believes in the urgency and indispensability of his vision, he has to fight for it with every inch of strength he possesses.

Paradoxically, Obama has written more about his own life than any presidential candidate in recent memory.

These works include two wryly observant (and quietly self-promotional) autobiographies.

Still, voters didn’t know enough about him in Ohio and Texas — at least not enough to help him deflect some of Clinton’s negative attacks.

So, is Obama ready to be commander-in-chief?

For starters, he has no military experience. None.

Neither does Clinton, though she has done some foreign policy work in the Senate.

So what does he do and say instead?

He talks about what has made him, and what has made him tough.

He acts like a fighter, commander of his own campaign. He does more than trot out a retired general or two. He goes to the army posts and naval bases. He applies his big, absorptive brain to military matters.

He looks into the camera and talks about being a boy in alien cultures.

Are there warriors among his Luo ancestors in Kenya? If so, he should find them!

Here’s the other question: Does he really want to be commander-in-chief? Does that urge come from within him? We need to know if it’s there.

On the economy and trade, Obama has to be the guy that he was on the South Side.

Video Obama continues to lead Democratic race March 5: Sen. Barack Obama joins the Morning Joe team to explain why he believes he’s  in a strong position to win the Democratic nomination. Morning Joe

It seems a simple enough case to make: he did know the sad reality of lives in abandoned places. He bonded with many of those people.

But the studied cool he emanates — the kind of cool that draws the college crowd to his side — hampers his ability to connect in raw, emotional terms.

Does he have that in him? We need to know.

Finally, he has to get a little angry. If he believes in the world he wants to create, he has to fight for it in every town and on every street corner in Pennsylvania.

Americans love a comeback. The one Clinton managed Tuesday night made her look heroic. Her smile was a thousand megawatts. Americans love an underdog as leader, because they like to believe in someone with that kind of spirit.

Clinton has managed to be the underdog. But when Obama gets ahead, he becomes a touch too arrogant for his own good.

He starts referring to himself in the third person. He starts his self-referential stylin’ on the stages of major amphitheaters. He becomes too much of a rock star.

And that's when he takes a fall. He needs more one-on-one time with the kind of average folks that Clinton is successfully running.

Obama is still the frontrunner, but he can’t win unless he behaves like he’s way behind.

Picking the president: The candidates Click to visit that candidate's MSNBC page or click the XML symbol for an RSS feed. John McCain                Barack Obama

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