It'll Be Obama and Romney!
That's what self-defined "libertarian Democrat" Terry Michael suggests in a Wash Times col:
While still in third or fourth place in those meaningless national match-ups, Mr. Romney has pulled ahead in both of the important test markets of Des Moines and Manchester. Those who get to see him up close and personal feel the magnetism of that master of the universe jaw and industrial strength hair.
And while Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton may have bludgeoned her way into the wallets and frontal lobes of the bloodless investors in Democratic circles, Mr. Obama is viscerally connecting with the lower-brain instincts of masses of activists, many of them newly activated. The Tiger Woods of politics has amassed more than 250,000 contributors in the first half of 2007 and vaulted millions of dollars ahead of Mrs. Clinton in the second quarter reports. One more figure to make the case: Mr. Obama has five times the number of "friends" on facebook.com. The Illinois senator's coffers are now as deep as Mrs. Clinton's, but his much greater breadth augurs well for cashing in with actual voters.
The key to their appeal? For Michael, a former press secretary for the Democratic National Committee, it's their sunny-side up with people-ness: "The broad center of the electorate is weary of public policy Cassandras like those at the press-release-driven Centers for Disease Control who boost their budgets with CNN Breaking News threats of the week, like the drug resistant TB case that turned out not to be so much."