Obama fevor hit New Hampshire, as the not-so-dark horse nominee for the 2008 presidency.  By all indications, this guy is carrying something very special — not seen in politics in decades:

"I’ve never seen anything like it," said Jim Demers, a lobbyist and former Democratic lawmaker who met Obama at the airport Saturday night and accompanied him throughout the events yesterday. "A lot of people have compared it to the days when Bobby Kennedy was running for president. I don’t think we’ve seen it since."

I suspect the Obama sheen will become tranished over the next two years, especially after he throws his hat in the ring.  As The Carperbagger writes, "no one can live up to the expectations that we’re seeing now."

Obama is pretty humble and equally wary of the buzz he’s generating:

"I am suspicious of hype. The fact that my 15 minutes of fame has extended a little longer than 15 minutes is somewhat surprising to me and completely baffling to my wife," he said at a news conference between events. "And I think what’s going on is people are very hungry for something new. I think they are interested in being called to be a part of something larger than the sort of small, petty, slash-and-burn politics that we have been seeing over the last several years. To some degree, I think I’m a stand-in for that desire on the part of the country."

Still, I don’t think I’ve seen such excitement generated over a new face in the presidential races in a long time.

New York Times coverage here.