I guess one can say that he’s arrived now that he’s appeared in the Shiny Sheet’s (Palm Beach Daily News) blog:

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I wonder whether candidates are fully aware of the depth of their followers’ devotion. Many of these folks waited in line for 2 hours — in full sun and 85-degree temperatures. Then, after passing through security (having bags checked, water bottles dumped and metal detected), they stood for another 2 1/2 hours.

While they waited, the group around me shared water bottles, thirst-quenching ginger candies, crowd management/survival tips, jokes, and offers to share photos. Denise, an educator, made me promise to catch her if she fainted upon spying Obama. I did, she didn’t.

Once the senator took the podium, the crowd began cheering loudly, letting go of their hunger and foot pains. Obama looked tired, and seemed to rush through his speech. But his followers were undeterred. They punctuated his words with cries of support. One young man, there with his adorable and very pregnant wife, peppered the speech with pleas to “talk about it.”

Everybody’s worried about Oprah Winfrey’s new religion, but perhaps this is the new religion we should be paying attention to.