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Obama mania hits New Hampshire

The New Hampshire primary is over a year away, and yet the phone is already ringing off the hook with activists wanting to help Sen. Obama.

From James Pindell of the Boston Globe:

Officially, Illinois Senator Barack Obama has been exploring a presidential run for less than a week, but his chief New Hampshire adviser says that hundreds of phone messages from Obama supporters have been left on his cell phone and at his lobbying office.

Jim Demers, a top Democratic lobbyist from Concord, was Dick Gephardt's top New Hampshire adviser in 2004. He said he has been overwhelmed with the interest in an Obama presidential campaign.

"I am not spinning for my candidate. I honestly mean I have never seen anything like it," said Demers, a one-time congressional candidate.

Demers attributes the amount of calls, in part, to the Internet.

"What I have really learned here is the power of Google," said Demers. "The campaign never gave out my information and I don't even have a formal role with them. Yet all these people just probably searched for my name and found my phone number quickly. Now I have a long list of calls to make."

Demers said he had to clean out his voicemail five times on Tuesday, the day Obama announced that he was forming a presidential exploratory committee.

Obama's magic

Walter Shapiro writes this glowing piece for Salon.

With his rock star visit to New Hampshire, the highflying senator continues to tantalize Democrats with intimations of a White House run -- and a buzz not felt in American politics since JFK.

Obama addressed the largest pre-presidential-primary crowd in modern New Hampshire history Sunday afternoon, Democratic state party chair Kathy Sullivan was sitting directly behind the Illinois senator. From her vantage point, Sullivan saw exactly what Obama saw -- 1,500 rapt faces staring up at him with curiosity, affection and hope. Turning to her seatmate Sylvia Larsen, the president of the state Senate, Sullivan whispered, "Imagine what it must be like to be him."  For Obama, the "Imagine" has almost reached John Lennon levels. His political ascent has already reached those star-studded heights where even political insiders like Sullivan cannot fully comprehend the pressures from the adoration and expectations that envelop him. He was not supposed to run for president this time, for Obama was the Democratic future held in reserve for 2012 or 2016. We are witnessing something rare -- a would-be candidate tantalizingly signaling his potential availability and the rank-and-file of the Democratic Party responding beyond his most rapturous dreams.