Why Obama was elected

I must have read hundreds of post-mortems in the past few days and I've posted excerpts from the more interesting ones about demographic changes etc and I've even posited my own theory of "historical inevitability."

I haven't been able to take seriously the ones that blame McCain ("he's not conservative enough and too much of a RINO") or Palin ("she's inexperienced, ignorant, too religious") or the GOP. It seems that the religious right and die-hard libertarians think "it's been taken over by moderate RINOs" while moderates think "it's been taken over by the religious right."

Sure we're feeling blue right now and are a bit too ready to blame whatever faction of the GOP to which we do not belong. But now is not the time to start destroying the GOP by purging it or fighting with each other because of our (minor) disagreements. Now's the time to concentrate on those things on which we do agree.

And those are really simple: none of the factions of the GOP such as the libertarians or religious folk like socialism; we all want strong defense and tough foreign policy and want limited government, federalism and lower taxes. Let's just concentrate on those things and leave aside any of our pet projects which serve to divide us.

Anyway, let me get back to the gist of this post. Elections are won by attracting the one-third of Americans who are not affiliated with either party, the socalled independent swing voters. Democrats vote Democrat and Republicans vote Republican out of party loyalty and for ideological reasons. Most "independents" are not ideological. They vote for the person not the policies. And they nearly always vote for the politician who apears to be the most cheerful, optimistic and positive person:

An obviously happy and positive Reagan instead of Gloomy Gus Carter

Reagan instead of miserable Mondale

Cheerful Ronnie's veep, Bush Sr, instead of dour Dukakis

A cheerful, jocular Clinton instead of boring old Bush Sr

Clinton instead of heavy, serious Dole

Upbeat Bush Jr instead of ponderous and pompous Gore

Bush Jr instead of dreary dreadful Kerry

Positive, hopey-changey Obama instead of serious, heavy McCain

I really don't believe that ideology attracts or repulses anyone else except the party faithful.

The way to win elections (for either party) is to pick a candidate who articulates the party's philosophy clearly and who is also cheerful, optimistic and positive. It's as simple as that.