Jay Reding on Obamamania:

It’s hardly unusual to see a candidate inspire their partisans—that’s what a good politician does. What is so unusual about Obama is the level of fervor that surrounds him. He is treated like a rock star in a way that even Clinton was not. The Obama campaign is less a traditional campaign that it is a movement.

I think it’s worse than Jay lets on.  I think that a big part of Obama’s “movement” is verging on a personality cult.  The “messiah” references, the unmoderated mass adulation (about nothing so much as him, himself), the masses of people mawkishly investing their political hopes and dreams into a personality that has given no rational reason beyond him…

…well, as Jay notes it’s not “about the issues”:

Political campaigns are, or at least should be, about ideals. The Obama movement is about nothing deeper than some vague vision of “change”—a value that could mean everything from marching through Poland to changing the national anthem to “Kumbaya” and inviting Osama bin Laden to a nationwide love-in. “Change” is an empty slogan, the intellectual equivalent of junk food—filling, but never offering anything of substance.

And if it were just about “change” there’s no reason to suspect that Obama would be ahead. Every candidate in this race talked about change. The real force behind the Obama campaign is not mere change, but force of personality.

And we know how well those work in office.  Right?