'Thrill going up my leg' 

Chris Matthews is getting flak for the way he described the feeling he gets listening to Barack Obama speak. Bloggers are saying he has a crush.

It was an odd way to put it. My own goosebumps usually manifest on an arm.

Obama supporters do have a sort of crush. I'll admit it and I don't think there's anything nasty about it. How long has it been since we had a candidate who touched us like that? "Cult of personality?" That's trying to turn the movement into something dirty and scary. It betrays a fear of the power of collective emotion mixed with political will, something akin to the boss's fear of the union.

The alternative is picking the pol with the checklist on a clipboard, and all those new voters, fresh faces excited about representative government for the first time, just go back to their video games.