Politics and the Fools in Love

Richard Cohen writes in the Washington Post:

Politics can be ugly, not to mention sad. Broken dreams are strewn across the American landscape. Fred Thompson resigned from “Law & Order.” Chris Dodd moved his family from Connecticut to Iowa just for the caucuses. Mitt Romney blew through a fortune. John Edwards campaigned through personal pain. The difference between a presidential candidate and a fool in love is only a matter of Secret Service protection.

And if I may add to that, the difference between self-delusion and self-belief is just as thin. In a parallel universe, Barack Obama is sitting in his kitchen going What was I thinking? and the Wall Street Journal is acclaiming Thompson as the next coming of Ronald Reagan. Such it goes…