Nate Silver, on the increasingly must-read FiveThirtyEight.com:
Candidates never look good at this stage of the political cycle, any more than football players do after playing a game in the mud. But I tend to think that these are two of the objectively stronger candidates that have been nominated in some time, creating perhaps the best matchup since the Kennedy-Nixon race of 1960. Barack Obama and John McCain each have classic and proud American biographies. Obama is probably the best political athlete since Bill Clinton; John McCain has a brand so strong that even Democrats feel obligated to compliment him. How many Republicans would rather have George W. Bush running again? How many Democrats would rather have John Kerry than Obama?I can't imagine many would. This is the first open election I've ever heard of in which both parties nominated the best candidate. Posted by Stephen Silver at June 4, 2008 04:15 PM