The two change candidates

I would submit that there are really only two candidates left in the presidential primary race who offer a meaningful and radical break from the status quo. One man has a real chance to be both his party's nominee and the next president, while the other does not have a chance to be either. I speak (respectively), of course, of Sen. Barack Obama (D) and Rep. Ron Paul (R).

The candidacies of both men raise interesting long-term questions. Can Obama's hopeful, positive, and prudential vision of left-liberalism break the polarities of American politics and build a new policy consensus, akin to the breakthroughs of FDR and Kennedy/LBJ? And will the 'Ron Paul revolution' develop into a growing movement that challenges from within mainstream conservatism's acceptance of a welfare-warfare State while also reaching out to antiwar moderates and liberals?

For an articulate endorsement of Barack Obama for the Democratic nomination, see Andrew Sullivan's article for the December 2007 Atlantic Monthly on the Obama candidacy. For briefer but also articulate endorsements of Ron Paul for the Republican nomination, see this blog post by Sullivan in addition to The American Conservative's endorsement.