Obama’s Howard Dean moment?

Has Barack Hussein Obama become the next Howard Dean?

The freshman U.S. Senator from Illinois and presidential hopeful may have gone overboard in his enthusiasm while attending church and making a political statement from the pulpit of Redemption World Outreach Center in South Carolina this past weekend, as seen on TV.

Getting into the spirit of the moment, Obama became two parts politician, one part preacher as he effused from the front of the church, “”Sometimes this is a difficult road being in politics. Sometimes you can become fearful, sometimes you can become vain, sometimes you can seek power just for power’s sake instead of because you want to do service to God. I just want all of you to pray that I can be an instrument of God in the same way that Pastor Ron and all of you are instruments of God. We’re going to keep on praising together. I am confident that we can create a Kingdom right here on Earth.”

While fitting the moment, Clinton’s crew is hoping, and Obama’s camp is fearing, that the Senator’s effervescence may be read the wrong way outside of church doors, painting him as a religious loon, rather than a serious politician.

In 2004, Howard Dean had a similar “apparent meltdown moment” in front of an Iowa crowd that ultimately cost him a chance at the Democratic Party presidential nomination. Could history repeat itself and ensure a suddenly-struggling Hillary Clinton a clear and unobstructed path to the Dem nod?

Time will tell.