An e-mail:

Hi, Rich, I was talking to a friend about this quite awhile ago (I had predicted he would run for president when I first watched him on TV speaking at the Democratic convention.) We decided that what makes him deceptively attractive is that he talks like a religious conservative, but votes like a passionate liberal. And yet, he sounds so rational — nothing wild-haired or raving about him. (And we figured with Oprah backing him, maybe we will all get new cars and whatever else we need — without raising taxes!) I hate to say it, but if he were white, his rhetoric and style would probably make him seem a little off-putting and like more of an Ivy League-style elitist, sort of like Kerry, except with wit and better athletic abilities. But his multicultural background makes him have an immediate appeal to minorities, while … appeal[ing] to younger voters as well. Bottom line is that I feel like Obama is like the perfect composite candidate that you would get if you could take focus group results and somehow build a candidate from scratch. Even his logo is the hippest one out there — he’ll definitely get the art students’ vote…