gordon smith vs. barack obama.

[Rob]

He smoked pot

"I inhaled - that was the point."

[Rob]

weve been through this before with johnny edwards.  then it was mark warner...

Yeah, because Edwards and Warner were capable of creating a scene like this:

No one anticipated that 1,500 tickets (at $25 a piece) would be all sold by the middle of last week -- and fire codes and the lack of a larger venue forced the state party to stop there. (Earlier Sunday morning, Obama attracted another 750 people to a book signing in Portsmouth.) New Hampshire, as the fabled home of the first presidential primary, has a vibrant political culture, but an outpouring like this is unprecedented in my experience covering the last seven primaries here. All day Sunday, long-memoried political reporters struggled to find a parallel. When, for example, Bill Clinton ran for president here in the 1992 primary, he never attracted a crowd beyond, say, 700 people. When John McCain was riding high before he won the 2000 Republican primary, he might have spoken to a thousand voters in a high-school gym. And those were free events on the eve of a primary. Last time around, John Kerry was speaking to crowds of roughly 100 people in fire stations around the state, little more than a month before the primary. Small wonder that local politicians like state Sen. Lou D'Alessandro, a major John Edwards backer in 2004, were harking back to John Kennedy's 1960 appearance at the University of New Hampshire to find an event that matched Sunday's Obama appearance.

The way things are going, you and Phil are going to be talking about how "overrated" he is right up until he takes the oath of office.

[Rob]

It will all mix in with the idea that will float around about Obama being too inexperienced and such.

You can also go after him for being black, you know.

It'll be hilarious if all of this panicked smearmongering blows up in your face. And I think it will- Obama, unlike some presidential candidates, doesn't lie about his past drug use. People just aren't going to care.

[Rob]

Oh wow! It took that long for you to bring up that I'm trying to make race an issue! 

No, I said you could. It was a friendly suggestion, nothing more.

It'll be hilarious that Obama will fail to succeed in this race (if he even gets in) but we'll just have to wait and see.

Remember this?

Obama is overrated. Though he'll easily win in November, it won't be by 25-30 points.

You scoffed at the idea of "overrated" Obama winning by 25-30 points. He won by 43. Keep it up, Phil, and you're going to be unpleasantly surprised come Election Day.

[Rob]

Wow. I suggest that you not get too cocky over this, Rob. Winning an Illinois Senate race against some clown - huge accomplishment.

The point, Phil, is that you've already underestimated him once, and badly. Yes, he had the good luck of running against Alan Keyes. But he outperformed beyond your wildest expectations; you should keep that in mind. You won't, though.

You're going to be unpleasantly surprised come 2008.

We shall see. The next two years are going to be fun.

[Rob]

That has quite a ring to it!

I try.

Way to make it seem like Obama... scored some real electoral accomplishment.

I never thought I would see the day a liberal black Democrat from Chicago would get 64 percent in the Goldwater stronghold of DuPage County. That's quite a feat, even against a joke candidate.

Obama will be in the big leagues now so I suggest that you quit being so arrogant.

Hey, at least I've got good reason to be arrogant. Obama-mania is sweeping the country.

Wait until he gets owned in the primaries or roughed up in the General.

No longer so certain that Hillary will thrash him in the primaries?

He is exciting. We do need more charisma in these campaigns.

Agreed. At the very least, win or lose, I hope Obama gets more people interested in the process.