Campaign Links

There are two guest op-eds in today's Seattle Times that bear reading. Alex Alben compares and contrasts John McCain, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. And conservative radio host John Carlson analyzes the emotional attachment evident in the Obama campaign and asks, will it last?

But excitement is closely tied to momentum and the Obama campaign is losing both. The affection for him is genuine, but it's less a long-term romance than a crush. And everyone knows that crushes either crash or fade. Ask an Obama supporter about the senator's greatest political accomplishment and the reaction is often the same: a crinkled eyebrow, an awkward acknowledgment that they can't think of anything, but he still inspires them because he represents "change" and "hope."