I agree. Even as early as 2004, the media were hunting for the next big thing in the democratic party. Remember Obama's Super Bowl fake-out in 2007?
I think part of this is because of the Democrats' urgent frenzy that they whipped their constituency into to try and beat Bush. After the election, they had to choose between crashing down from that intense adrenaline rush, or finding something new to focus their energies on. They chose the latter, and started searching in earnest for the Democratic president who would sweep the next election, and with that mandate, right all the wrongs Bush had made in the last 8 years.
This is why people are so eager for the primaries to end - we've been expecting some kind of savior to come for the last 3 years, and people are tired of waiting for him/her to become anointed before they start worshipping them for simply being anybody but Bush.
