Its time the US embraces the metric system. This not only puts the country on the same measurement system as the rest of world, the task to convert would spur new jobs and align education materials. I think taking on this well over due conversion also sends a signal to the rest of the world that America has the humility to accept a global norm, demonstrate it can change (for the better) and is committed to better integrate with the rest of the world.

Vote now at the Obama's citizens briefing book site :
http://www.change.gov/

I have an intuition that President-Elect Obama and some of the members of his transitional team has either a pro-metric policy already formulated as an implicit and unexpressed policy, or that either of them can easily be persuaded of the need for its timely introduction and implementation through Congressional legislation, given a skilful Lobbyist.

Americans have clung proudly and stubbornly to the USA measurement system, resisting a switch to the metric system, despite the occasional catastrophe that might be avoided by getting onboard with the rest of the world. Now, the metric system has become an issue in the US presidential election.

Bringing the issue to the forefront was an article in the German tabloid Bild titled “I worked out with Obama!” In the article, Bild reporter Judith Bonesky writes of observing the candidate working out in the gym of the Ritz Carlton hotel in Berlin: “He goes and picks up a pair of 16 kilo weights and starts curling them with his left and right arms, 30 repetitions on each side. Then, amazingly, he picks up the 32 kilo weights! Very slowly he lifts them, first 10 curls with his right, then 10 with his left. He breathes deeply in and out and takes a sip of water from his 0,5 litre Evian bottle.”