Andrew Sullivan quotes John Hodgman‘s explanation for what it is that he thinks is appealing about Obama:

“[W]hat I think it’s really amazing that he exists in the same world that I also inhabit and no other political candidate lives in that world right now. They live in a made-up world that is not reality. I think that that’s why you see Obama surging right now. It’s that the people like the fact that Obama lives in the world that they live in[.]”

I’m not really one for conflating the private personal with the public political, but this is a story I can identify deeply with.  I suspect it’s one that most of us will be able to, at some point in our lives.  Few of us will ever actually know the man, but this is just one reminder that – as much as we may be divided by so many things – there are some deeply personal experiences common to us all.