Rich — It’s funny, I had a very similar conversation with the missus last night.

About a year ago, I was up in New York to do a panel for Commentary magazine (I was sitting in for you, I believe). I was talking to John Podhoretz beforehand and he was saying how Bill Kristol was probably right: The lesson of Barack Obama may well be that none of us have even heard of the next Republican standard-bearer. After all, prior to his 2004 DNC keynote, Obama was a political “nobody,” too. A year ago, I thought how implausible it was that there really could be someone who was not a familiar name, at least to professional political junkies, could be the next GOP nominee. Then again, I also thought that the Democrats were going to be in strong shape for a very long time. But here we are.

Now, I do not actually think that Brown — if he wins — is obvious presidential material (Indeed, I think a senator should actually be a senator for a while, rather than use the title to run for president as Obama did).

But how well known was Bob McDonnell a year ago? The point is we are living in amazingly fluid times, politically. Who knows what’s coming next?