McCain is pretty darn charismatic. Not in the "I'm a nice guy" sense, but in the "I'm authentic" sense. The former is more universally appealing, but the latter certainly has legs. Bush.v2 seemed to convey more of the authenticity, but he would have lost to Bill Clinton. That's what amazing to me about 2000 - Bill Clinton wins that contest, blue dress and all. Still, if there's no blue dress Gore wins in a landslide.

The McCain-Obama matchup this fall is interesting, for the contrasts, but I have to agree that Obama has the once-in-a-generation kind of charisma.