Set aside what you’ve learned from reading Hot Air and similar resources, and imagine you’re an average voter in the swing states, one of the people who really could have gone either way. You were sold a vision by the Obama campaign, which broadly includes almost all media outlets, and the people who control the popular culture. The vision was a promise of free comforts from a wise and benevolent state, which they told you has been failing you until now. These wonderful benefits would be paid for by faceless, sinister rich people who did something incomprehensible, but very bad, to the markets recently – an idea that was most definitely not contested by McCain, so it must be true.

You had been made to feel relentlessly bad about the country for years, and more generally, you’ve been taught since childhood that America is fundamentally corrupt and flawed – founded in racism and genocide. You are convinced the economy has been terribly mis-managed under Bush, although you couldn’t say exactly why. You vaguely remember the 9/11 attacks, but that was a long time ago, and you’ve been told endlessly that the primary consequence of those attacks was the un-necessary and bungled invasion of Iraq. You haven’t thought about Iraq much in a year or two, because the media stopped reporting on it. Before that, all the news was awful, so the whole thing must have been a terrible mistake. You couldn’t think of a single thing Bush has ever done right, and you haven’t seen or heard from him in a couple of years. Since he hasn’t been defending or explaining himself, all the terrible things they said about him must be true.

You know that America has serious problems with racism, because you are told this incessantly – it’s a part of almost every movie and TV show you watch. You don’t think of yourself as a racist, and none of your friends is one, but you know there are tons of them out there in the deep South, lurking in the Bible Belt. You would very much like an opportunity to prove you’re not a racist, and feel good about yourself. You’ve been taught all your life to hold those redneck Bible-thumpers in utter contempt, and now you’ve been told that voting for Obama would be a perfect way to show your moral superiority.

The Obama campaign was energetic and charismatic, with catchy slogans that were easy to remember, and high production values for all of its events. The campaign and its media cheerleaders were energetic and passionate. Even if you have any doubts about all of the above, you just don’t have the strength to resist the pop-culture drumbeat. The McCain campaign never offered you that kind of strength. They had no coherent vision, no catchy slogan, no grand promises of fresh government benefits. They spent most of their time telling you how much they respect that dashing young Obama fellow. They eventually said some disturbing things about Obama’s past associations, but you don’t really know who Bill Ayers or Jeremiah Wright are, because the media never told you about them, aside from a vague suggestion that Ayers did something controversial a long time ago. At the debates, Obama said he barely knew the guy, and McCain didn’t call him on it, so bringing it up later seemed desperate. There was eventually a big scandal around Obama and Joe the Plumber, but the media quickly explained that Joe was a shady character with a checkered past who was probably a McCain campaign operative anyway. By the beginning of last week, you didn’t remember exactly what happened between Obama and Joe.

All you ever really got out of the McCain campaign was that McCain was an old war hero, and you shouldn’t vote for Obama because he was young. You were told to look down your nose at Sarah Palin, and every day, there was a new story about something clumsy or foolish she had done. As of Election Day, the only thing you remembered about her was that she gracefully lost her one debate (the media told you so), she has weird religious views, there’s something odd about her children, and she spent a lot of money on clothes.

It was easy to pull that lever for Obama and thumb your nose at the hated Bush. Many of the things that happen over the next two years will be very confusing to you, but you’ll be told they were all Bush’s fault anyway. At least you can proudly say you voted for the first black president. Even McCain and Bush are telling you how wonderful that is.

Doctor Zero on November 5, 2008 at 2:03 PM

The Republican Party of 1958 was even more religious than the Republican Party of 2008. But they were also the party of the educated, the upper middle class, the success stories, and even a good part of Hollywood. Why can’t we go back to that?

Speedwagon82 on November 5, 2008 at 4:27 PM

They’ve still got a chunk of the upper middle class and the success stories, but the educated and Hollywood are gone for at least another generation. Taking back the education system should be a high priority for conservatives. It will be extremely difficult, because of the vast entrenched union and government apparatus in the way, and it will take years, but it can be done. Capturing the education system was a high priority for the 60s radicals, and it has obviously paid off for them. School choice is probably the best means of getting it back, and it’s something that can be fought for at the local level.

Doctor Zero on November 5, 2008 at 4:39 PM

… and you get Hollywood back with more movies like “The Dark Knight.” Nobody is going to slam a door in Christopher Nolan’s face, even if he wants to make “Patriotic Heroes: From George Washington to John McCain” as his next film.

Doctor Zero on November 5, 2008 at 4:41 PM

exactly!…that was hilarious. The whole campaign was gimmicky and repetitive, not even CLOSE to serious enough for the times we are facing.

Hell, I thought I was going to vote for Obama there for a while, and then I came to my senses.

Goodeye_Closed on November 5, 2008 at 4:37 PM

Joe the Plumber was a good card they overplayed. He gave McCain a rare opening to connect to the average voter, but since connecting with average people doesn’t come naturally to him, he overdid it and unleashed the whole Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood.

I think it takes nothing away from McCain’s many noble qualities to observe that he doesn’t have the instinctive ability to speak directly and empathetically to regular folks. Palin does, which may be the key to her future on the national stage, and she’s well on her way to polishing her act and overcoming the early mis-steps. Palin critics should ask themselves how Obama would have fared in similarly hostile early interviews, full of gotcha questions, and those incredible “your exact words” moments. The big difference between his trajectory, and Palin’s, is that such questioning is literally inconceivable, now or in the future. She can learn what she needs, but McCain never could. If Joe the Plumber hadn’t dropped in his lap, he wouldn’t have come as close as he did.

Doctor Zero on November 5, 2008 at 4:53 PM