The nation's freshest, brightest political star makes an impressive Las Vegas debut. So now what?

Prior to Barack Obama's entrance to a crowd of more than 3,000 in Las Vegas Sunday, campaign event organizers tried to start up a chant: "O-Bam-A. O-Bam-A."

The chant never really took off -- a signal, probably, that most of those who came out to see the candidate/star did so not because they've decided that Obama is their guy, but because they're curious. More than one person in the crowd was heard to say that with the NV caucuses still nearly a year away, it's too early to settle on a candidate.

And too early, perhaps, to chant a candidate's name.

But certainly not too early to join the rest of the nation and wonder, What's all the buzz about? 

One glimpse of the Obama charisma, charm, personality or whatever else it is that constitutes his magical Obamaness came as Obama mused about getting into politics in the first place. He said he used to get questions from people wondering why a man with such a rewarding legal career, a wonderful family and glimmering prospects would want to become a politician.

Such questions were understandable then, and are understandable now, Obama said, because so many people "feel as if politics has become a business instead of a mission."

Good line. In the hands of many, perhaps most, politicians, a line like that would be dressed up and timed to get applause.

But it didn't get applause in Las Vegas Sunday. Instead, it got hundreds of heads nodding in affirmation, accompanied by an audible murmur of agreement, almost as if Obama wasn't delivering a campaign address, but making an observation, and a very well-received one, in the course of a conversation.

In that instant and others like it, a few thousand people in Las Vegas saw some of what so much of the rest of the country has seen, and which has sparked Obama from the ranks of the Illinois Legislature to a top-tier candidate for president in less than three years. Not only is he smart -- probably brilliant -- and fresh. The guy can connect.

And so the question becomes, will Sen. Obama use his formidable powers for the forces of good?

It sounds like it.

"We don't have to accept the world as it is."

"It's not just about winning ... but getting people to re-engage and take their country back."

The nation needs "to get beyond small politics ... timid politics."

And Obama's signature line: "I haven't been in Washington very long, but I've been there long enough to know Washington has to change."

It's a bit surprising, then, to find that Obama's examples of presumably larger and bolder politics,  and his vision of a Washington changed, seem to rest on staples of policy arcana that Democratic politicians, albeit some of the smarter ones, have been tossing out for nearly two decades.

On heath care, for instance, Obama whipped up the crowd by telling them that the $1.9 trillion the U.S. spends on health care is more than any other country in the world, and so clearly there is no reason that people should go without coverage. Obama's spirited diagnosis, however  was not followed up by prescribing a strong treatment of, say, single-payer universal care. Instead, it was suggested to the excited crowd that there would be some sort of universal coverage in the nation if only we can achieve savings through increasing preventative care, reducing administrative costs and ironing out irrational quirks regarding treatments that are eligible under Medicare. It is an undeniable testament to Obama's skill in front of an audience that these serviceable if not groundbreaking ideas were met with enthusiastic cheers and applause.

It might end up being a test for Obama, however, to continue getting warm reactions for such less-than-dramatic proposals -- proposals that some might even call, well, small or timid -- once the novelty of Obama himself wears a little on the campaign trail.

Meantime, the loudest and warmest reaction he got from the Las Vegas crowd was that reserved for his reminder that he was against the war before being against the war was cool.

Giving red meat to the party faithful, Obama blasted "a war that should have never been waged," adding the phrase, "a war that should have never been authorized" -- a not-so-subtle swipe at fellow Democratic presidential contender Hillary Clinton, who refuses to characterize her vote to authorize the Iraq war as a mistake (and who, it was learned earlier in the day, has won the backing of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's son, Rory, the chairman of the Clark County Commission).

In Democratic primaries and caucuses, Obama's position on the war should give him an angle on Clinton. But against Clinton or anybody else, it is not Obama's position on the war that will ultimately decide the fate of his candidacy. It is Obama himself.

In Las Vegas Sunday, he showed that yes, he can sling it, he's a rock star, he's all that. The relentless optimism, the "audacity of hope," the phenomenon by which an African-American in the United States becomes the symbol of a generation and reignites interest not only in politics but in civic life, the charm, the sincerity... there are some excellent reasons why Obama is the freshest, brightest political star the nation has seen in a good many years.

The thing about stars, of course, is that sometimes they're shooting, falling out of view just as quickly as they appear. And that could, one supposes, happen to Obama. But given his brains, his talent, his drive and the intangible connection between Obama and the public, anybody who thinks Obama can't win the White House hasn't been paying attention.

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