Boston.com reported on a phenomenon that started sweeping the nation sometime around the Iowa caucus: bHarmony, or couples coming together over a shared passion for Obama. But now that the inauguration is almost here, will the love last?
Richard Parker, a public policy professor at the Harvard's Kennedy School, says that if a campaign couple makes it to inauguration, there's cause for celebration. Election-spawned relationships are usually intense, overly serious, and quite short, he says. Rarely do these twosomes last past November.
It's like summer camp, especially for younger campaigners who are stuck in a remote location, working 16-hour days.
"There's a certain amount of casual hooking up," he says, adding that campaigners need to "release [their] ya-yas, if you will."
Sometimes campaign lovers already have real spouses at home.
"I've seen some pretty tragic break-ups occur," he says. "People say, in the heat of the moment, 'I have found my soul mate. No one reads district-to-district polling analysis like she does.' "
Crushes on campaign workers are usually fleeting. But if a couple is still together on Jan. 20, it might be the real deal, Parker says.
Read more about bHarmony.
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