Just how inevitable is an executive to be made of the Democratic Party's ought-to-be nominee? This man is elecutionarily gifted, handsome; one who is quite literally the new face of America. There's innervation in his speeches not seen since the end of the last decade, and it shows. The grassroots should, by fall, grant him apotheosis.
His challenger is a national fixture more in the strict sense of age than venerability; more recognizable as a greying statesman than the crippled, forebearing hero. He has two salient political attributes. One, rapprochement at best with his own party. Two, staunch affiliation with an unpopular president whom the public sees as persisting in a military campaign for a country whose name has descended, in the vernacular, to a four-letter word.
Twenty years ago, a stuffy, New England governor tried to deny the White House to a sedate vice president whose boss was ending a presidential term with record popularity. In July polls, the governor maintained leads of up to twenty points.
And by how many points does the first man average over the second man, this July? Five.