Anne Applebaum at Slate has a piece about her Euro friends’ reaction to the Obama candidacy. She gives voice to something I’ve thought was at work in recent weeks, namely, that Obama’s qualifications for many voters are not as important as making the statement that, “Hey, world, see. We’re not racists. We’ll even vote for a black man for president.” Here’s her closing comment:

As for the expats I know, I can promise that most of them, even the Republicans, would vote for Obama in New Hampshire or South Carolina if they could, precisely because he is black. At least that would show all our snotty foreign friends that we really aren’t governed by dynasties. At least that will make us feel, once again, that we come from a country where any child really can grow up to be president.

This may explain why Obama’s lack of experience does not seem to be hurting him with voters who want to be part of something historic. The old political calculus, in his case, is out the window.

UPDATE: More of the same from the Obama event in Concord, N.H. tonight. As my daughter, who was there, reports:

The girl introducing him sounds about 16, though I can’t see her from here (She just announced that her dad, “a lifelong Republican, is very proud to be voting for Barack Obama,” to great applause).

And this:

If you want to know what political failure looks like for Hillary Clinton, it’s in the awkward gyrations of these N.H. 20-somethings, drunk on Obama’s hope and groovin’ their way to change by the sound of a sweet Motown soundtrack.

Seriously, though? If they nominate this guy, we’re in some trouble. It can’t help but be infectious when people are this excited about anything.

UPDATE: James Lileks is seeing the same thing today:

But it’s all for naught if the Obamaboom continues, because he has the zeitgeist at his back and a sail the size of an IMAX screen. People will vote for him because they want to be part of something larger, and that’s a rare and potent thing these days. Whether that’s a wise thing to do in perilous times depends on whether people think we’re living in perilous times, I suppose. We’ll see.