Peggy Dooley: Will Dems Respect Themselves in November?

"I’m infatuated with you!" There, he said it.

After weeks and weeks of so many voters thinking and feeling the same, Barack Obama is giving some of the love back.

In Fort Worth on Thursday, he told his 10,000+ Texas crowd, "I am inspired by you. I’m infatuated with you." And he told them to pay no mind to the folks out there telling them they need to slow it down a bit, folks trying to tamp down the enthusiasm, the spasms of hope, the butterflies of excitement, the passion.

Which is exactly what you want to hear when you’re in the throes of a new relationship, those heady first months when, as a friend of mine put it, "you still want to stay up really late talking to him."

It’s been two months since Obamamania kicked off in earnest coming out of Iowa. Two months of heady talk and strong emotions and just the sheer joy of being in love. And Obama supporters are in love, have no doubt. He’s smart, and funny, he dresses really well.

And that voice. The voice alone is enough to sign up for, and then he says these things that you so want to believe are true. "You are the change!" I mean, whoo, I just felt that tingle go up my leg again.

And then there’s Hillary, the dependable old boot of a first lady. The walking definition of a buzz kill. Yammering on about "experience, experience, experience." I mean seriously, who would you rather stay up all night talking to?

She’d ten-point-plan you to death, while he — well, he’d dazzle you with pretty words and, well yes, let’s have one more glass, don’t you think? and tell me again about how you reached across the aisle that one time.

Super Tuesday II finds those Dems not already seduced by the Illinois senator struggling between their hearts and their heads; between the Hyde Park Heartthrob and the Park Ridge Pedant; between Barack’s "yes, we can!" and Hillary’s "but honey, what do we really know about this young man?"

In their heads, they know Hillary is a solid choice. But the heart is a resilient little muscle, as Woody Allen used to say, and Democrats are prone to losing theirs.

They went pitter-pat for Gene and Bobby in ’68, but then gave it up to the heads and Humphrey — and lost.

In ’72 they went with their hearts and McGovern and got the same result. The Carter fling felt pretty good at the time, but in retrospect they kind of regret that one.

And Bill Clinton was the irresistible bad boy who broke everybody’s heart and drove them into the arms of two consecutive dependable old boots in Al Gore and John Kerry — both of whom lost and left hearts not only broken, but bitter.

So who’s to say this new guy couldn’t just be The One?

Sure, the worrywarts and the experience mongers will try to break it up. They’ll point to 15 million uninsured and red phones and corrupt friends, but you really don’t want to hear about that kind of stuff when you’re falling in love, do you?

And if the love blooms and Dems find themselves walking down the aisle with someone who’s a bit green come November, well, what of it? Playing it safe the last two times got them eight years of George W. Bush.

And speaking of Bush, he and Laura had something of a whirlwind romance. They met at a barbecue and three months later not only were they married, they were on the campaign trail. Skipped the honeymoon and went straight on the stump — and look where they are now.

So you see, sometimes this infatuation thing works out just fine. I guess we’ll see what Texas and Ohio have to say.

Peggy Dooley is a writer and editor at FOX News Channel.