When I first decided to support Barack Obama, I didn't really have strong reasoning behind the decision, besides his charisma. I was, admittedly, on the bandwagon like everybody else. However, over the past couple of months, my support for him has completely solidified.

My first step toward totally backing Obama came when he made he formally announced his candidacy for president. In the middle of his remarks on education, he said this:

Let's set high standards for our schools and give them the resources they need to succeed. Let's recruit a new army of teachers, and give them better pay and more support in exchange for more accountability.

In saying this, Obama essentially kissed away all support from teachers' unions because the teachers' unions are squarely against school accountability. But -- it's this kind of reform, in a general sense, that needs to take place if poor and minority kids are going to achieve at high levels and if America is going to remain competitive internationally.

I'm sure that other candidates understand this just as well as Obama does, but I have yet to hear any of them say anything remotely close to Obama's remarks.

The point is that Obama is willing to go in front of crowds and tell them things they don't really want to hear -- but that need to be said. He made an even bigger pitch right to members of the teachers' unions, as reported in the Des Moines Register:

But then he talked about "the things that were good about No Child Left Behind," like high standards needed for students because U.S. children will have to compete for jobs with students from countries with more rigorous schools. The act also identified groups of students who need extra help in schools, such as minority students, he said.

Obama told one teacher questioner that teachers deserve more pay to attract people to the profession, a line that drew whoops and applause. "I have to say though, there's got to be a bargain with teachers in terms of more pay," he said.

"They've got to get more pay, but there's also going to be more accountability." (There was audible rustling and mumbling in the seats at that.)

"Now, the accountability can't just be based on standardized test performance only, but that has to be part of the mix, and there has to be assessment tools that are developed in concert with teachers," Obama said.

"If teachers are underperforming, we're going to get them the help they need. But we're not going to pretend they are not underperforming, and that is something we're going to have to make happen," the senator said.

Similarly, he told a group of Democrats that the military budget can't be cut -- something Dems really don't want to hear:

But Obama said "in terms of the overall military budget, I will tell you that we are going to have problems making immediate cuts, because one of the untold stories about this war is the way it has depleted our military.

"The fact of the matter is, we are going to need more troops than we currently possess" because of the pressures Iraq has placed on the National Guard and reserves, he said. "We're going to have to build up the size of our active regular forces. We're going to have to replace the equipment that has been depleted.... There's probably going to be a bump in initial military spending just to get back to where we were."

After that, the United States can reprioritize some military spending. "If we do those things, potentially, over time, we can see some savings. That doesn't mean, by the way, that we're still not going to have to have some of the conventional military forces that we need to protect ourselves from more potential attacks or threats." He cited North Korea as an example.

Obama got virtually no applause to that answer.

The fact of the matter, though, is that the military is stretched very thin. There is discussion in military academia about how close we are to the breaking point of open troop rebellion against their extended tours in Iraq. It's a reality that the nation needs to address, even if Dems don't like the requisite military spending that goes along with it.

Obama's candor got me thinking back to In the Shadow of Two Gunmen, Part I, an episode of The West Wing. It's the flashback episode where Leo convinces Josh to go to New Hampshire and see Jed Bartlet on the stump. Bartlet is giving a speech to some dairy farmers, when one of them asks about him cutting dairy subsidies, to which he responds, "Yep, I really screwed you there." He goes on to explain that he couldn't let hungry children go without milk, and therefore had to cut the subsidies. Josh, initially distracted, looks up and realizes that Bartlet is the real deal.

That's the same kind of feeling I have when I hear Obama tell audiences like it is. It's refreshing to see someone in the field who can speak genuinely and not compromise their beliefs for political gain.