Cleggmania leads in poll and sweeping Britain

Britain's Liberal Democrats have taken the lead in a poll which is partially due to party leader Nick Clegg finally receiving proper exposure and equal debate billing. Great Britain has been swept with "Cleggmania". An exciting possibility about the Liberal Democrats leading a minority or coalition government is their unwavering stance on electoral reform and proportional representation. Britain, along with Canada, is one of the very few western nations still using the antiquaited and undemocratic electoral system. Not only did the Liberal Democrats finally receive their fair due in a national debate, but Clegg stole the show. "Clegg comes of age" was the headline in the following day's edition of the London Times. To top it off, according to a YouGov poll, the Liberal Democrats are leading with 34%, with the Conservatives trailing with 31%. The Liberal Democrats were trailing a week ago with 16%.

The Daily Dish's Andrew Sullivan called it "the earthquake in Britain", while the Independent's John Curtice called the rise of the Liberal Democrats "the biggest shock to the electoral landscape in years". Oliver Burkeman from the Guardian has asked if Clegg is the British Obama. There is now even an Obama "Hope" poster featuring Clegg. Anyways, Burkeman wrote:

Consider the Obama-Clegg parallels. Obama's sensibility developed during a childhood dominated by the absence of his father and his struggles to fit into communities in Hawaii and Indonesia; Clegg's outlook was forged in the crucible of his hardscrabble origins in Chalfont St Giles, Buckinghamshire, his education at Westminster School in London, and his degree in archaeology and anthropology at Robinson College, Cambridge. Obama had "Yes, we can". Clegg has "I agree with Nick". Obama, as a youth, flirted with hard drugs. Clegg set fire to a cactus. These parallels aren't perfect, of course. They may even strike some readers as absurd. But what Clegg's rightwing and leftwing critics miss, as do predictably sarcastic journalists, is that this is precisely the point. To say that Nick Clegg is the British Barack Obama is not to suggest that he is an exact duplicate of the original, American Obama, transplanted to our shores. He's a British version.

London Mayor Boris Johnson and 538.com both shot down the idea. So did the Guardian's Nicholas Watt. But Watt did concede that Clegg is having an "Iowa moment", referencing the first presidential primary Obama won for the Democratic nomination, leading up to the 2008 election.

Still, Clegg is apparently "growing in confidence", with Clegg possibly "exciting parts of the electorate never reached before", who has an "unprecedented" 72% approval rating. With the Daily Mail tabloid after him, the Guardian also said Clegg "must be doing something right". According to Clegg: I think more and more people, a growing number of people, are just starting to believe that we can do something different this time."