George McGovern drew large

enthusiastic crowds and in the general election carried one state. Is there possibly an analogy here for Obama? I don't think so. I attended a pro-labor McGovern rally in downtown Chicago in 1972. The crowd was large and enthusiastic but it was 90% college students protesting the war. I also attended a Kennedy rally in Springfield in 1960. The crowd was also large and almost fanatical in its enthusiasm. The crowd was mixed with college students, old folks, working class, and middle class parents carrying children on their shoulders so they too could get a glance of the future president. I watch the films and see the photos from Obama rallies and I see the same mix and the same enthusiasm. Do not underestimate this man as he has magic and as he slowly works his way across this country he will by late autumn have gained a momentum that I do not believe will not be stopped. I know some here are sincerely concerned about lack of experience and shortness of policy specifics but the average American just wants someone they can trust and someone who can inspire them to believe things can be better. After 7 years of Chimpy and Company they want someone who cares.
This is not an Obama endorsement but rather the perceptions of a 60 year old political junkie. I am leaning his way these days but I could also get enthused about a Richardson candidacy and I would work hard for Edwards.

because Dr. Dean also gathered large, enthusiastic crowds and was torpedoed by a cherrypicked video and a corrupt mass media. They couldn't get any dirt on him, so they made it up.

In other words, don't put your heart and soul into one candidacy. Oh, you can pick a favorite and vote for him/her in the primary, but don't bother with the knight on the white horse. He's too great a target for the Republic media and will likely be destroyed long before the convention. If he's outside the DLC/Blue Dog/Wall Street Dem axis, you can bet he'll be ruined from within, again with media complicity.

Choosing someone this early on is a way to get really discouraged later on, when your work will really count.

(McGovern failed with the lumpenproeletariat simply because the opposition succeeded in painting him with a socialist brush. That his ideas were correct and would have saved 99% of us a great deal of economic grief is beside the point. The party has played it much too safe since then.)

The conservative movement promptly gave up, never to be seen again, and ever since only moderate republican candidates have run.