Obama won because:
1. His campaign was better organized, better executed, and his message was better articulated. McCain/Palin was not a bad ticket and all, but they couldn’t seem to get their act together into a consistently compelling case for why they would have been a better choice. Obama inspired more confidence, even with ideas that were highly questionable and with far less experience. He was able to position himself as a moderate even though his own voting record is far-left.

mark88hosting on November 7, 2008 at 8:22 PM

The right did what it could to show that he wasn’t a moderate and that McCain/Palin were mavericks.(though McCain and Palin were mavericks of opposite extremes) The media helped paint Obama in the middle. Obama inspire people with pure fluff and no content and the masses were easily impressed.

2. Obama had tremendous personal charisma and knew how to use it. He also heavily mined for the black urban vote and it came out big for him.

It didn’t come out that big for him. Black turnout in 2004:11%, in 2008:13%. But He didn’t just mine the black vote, he instigated race and class warfare so much that Ohio had it’s police prepared for a riot.

3. Obama knew how to use the media to his advantage better than the McCain campaign – internet, radio, tv, print

Obama’s campaign quickly noticed that the media oogled him and used that opportunity and ran with it.

4. Obama articulately dismissed criticisms leveled against him and McCain’s campaign has little real response to them. Even worse, when Obama criticized McCain, the GOP did not effectively respond/debunk the criticism

Yeah, Obama simply dismissed the criticism by insulting the critics rather than providing substantive counter arguments. Calling his critics selfish or insinuating bigotry was all the lazy thinking voters needed to hear.

5. Obama’s campaign beat the GOP at their own get-out-the-vote game. They went for everything, everywhere — and it paid off handsomely for them.

It did not. Just as many people voted in 2004 as they did in 2008. Then number of youth voting was same as well.

6. When economy became the #1 issue, McCain’s campaign faltered — as if they were caught off guard and didn’t really know what to do about it. Obama didn’t make that mistake

I thought both responded pretty much at the same time. However, McCain should have got on his soap box and screamed, I told the liberals this was going to happen and they did nothing.

7. Obama sold “hope” to the masses, and they bought it in bulk quantities. They were convinced that any change he brought would be for the better, even though there was no clearly defined concept on what the “change we need”, “change we can believe in” actually is.

This proves what I’ve been saying about lazy thinking Americans. Fluffy feelings of hope override rational thought about important issues.

Sorry to be so negative. Michelle and Ed might consider me one of the whiny ones. I just think I’m seeing things the way they are. The media was in the tank for the One and a good percentage of the American people wanted to believe the easy road was better. Unfortunately we all will likely learn the hard way.(and some still wont even then)

1. His campaign was better organized, better executed, and his message was better articulated. McCain/Palin was not a bad ticket and all, but they couldn’t seem to get their act together into a consistently compelling case for why they would have been a better choice. Obama inspired more confidence, even with ideas that were highly questionable and with far less experience. He was able to position himself as a moderate even though his own voting record is far-left.

2. Obama had tremendous personal charisma and knew how to use it. He also heavily mined for the black urban vote and it came out big for him.

3. Obama knew how to use the media to his advantage better than the McCain campaign – internet, radio, tv, print

4. Obama articulately dismissed criticisms leveled against him and McCain’s campaign has little real response to them. Even worse, when Obama criticized McCain, the GOP did not effectively respond/debunk the criticism

5. Obama’s campaign beat the GOP at their own get-out-the-vote game. They went for everything, everywhere — and it paid off handsomely for them.

6. When economy became the #1 issue, McCain’s campaign faltered — as if they were caught off guard and didn’t really know what to do about it. Obama didn’t make that mistake

7. Obama sold “hope” to the masses, and they bought it in bulk quantities. They were convinced that any change he brought would be for the better, even though there was no clearly defined concept on what the “change we need”, “change we can believe in” actually is.

8. The GOP seemed to be using older Bush strategies which worked well in 2000 and 2004, but did not take into account certain demographic considerations in this election.

The GOP can roar back as it has from previous defeats, but it needs an articulate voice and compelling vision, not finger pointing and fault finding. We need to be able to sell our vision back to America the way we did in the Clinton years, mindful of today’s issues and demographic realities.

Post of the week. Amen brother.

If Palin had been on top of the ticket since Feb campaigning for herself she would have kicked Barry to the curb.

With a 1000 watt smile on her angelic face.

Obama won because of a bizarre combination of factors: 1) enough starry-eyed suckers (and vengeful cynics), both white and black, believed that, like the original O.J. verdict, it was Payback Time for Whitey (on the causasian front, it became a desire to absolve gnawing White Liberal Guilt with a symbolic mea culpa incarnated by Mr. Reparations-In-Chief), 2) deep-seated Bush hatred, and 3) panic over a messy economy.

A serious and optimistic conservative Republican candidate could have fought Obama’s “historical” showboating, but it would have required speaking about these facts honestly, and calling Obama an absurdly unqualified, laughably radical, race-baiting fraudmeister.

And remind voters that a truly good black candidate, like a Martin Luther King, Jr., would have been magnificent, but a cheap flim-flam artist like Obama had no right to steal the glory of those who fought the good fight and hijack their worthy movement for his radical leftist, crypto-Marxist agenda, which is anathema to the black community’s – and the majority of America’s- values.

Fear of offending the “new black fellow” lost this election.

Timidity always loses.
Uncertainty always loses.
Unwillingness to speak hard truths always loses.

I guess this idea is so ‘passe’ the republicans don’t even want to touch it anymore, eh?

I think we all agree the problem is letting fake Republicans in, not that we don’t have enough of them.

You can’t claim that the other side was hoodwinked when that’s exactly what you’re trying to do, too.

INTELLECTUALLY BANKRUPT

However, the bigger issue right now is simply to wait and see what the new Congress and the new President produce. Attacking them now before they have held so much as one vote, proposed a bill or signed/vetoed anything will lead mostly to the electorate developing a tin ear regarding the Democrats/Socialists.

Obama has proven he is a lot smarter than the average Democrat (and many elected Republicans). It will be better to wait and beat his reputation up when he is forced to back the disasterous legislation congressional Democrats are discussing.

Boehner: Same old song
John Boehner offers the (Republican) party line in an oddly flat column in today’s Washington Post.
Instead of offering specifics about how Boehner plans to change the GOP
to rebuild voter trust — or even……

That’s an interesting argument, but it begs the question of what 63 Americans did vote for.

No Ed, to “beg the question” is to engage in circular reasoning. What you mean is that “it raises the question.”

/pet peeve #348

I agree.

pukara61 on November 7, 2008 at 12:01 PM

Education is a real problem in our country. Our schools don’t teach logic anymore. We have also ceased to believe that there is ONE real God who is sovereign and He is the one who determines the truth. Instead, the majority eagerly grabs the forbidden fruit desiring to be as gods.

Me personally? All Republicans in the House should afford the Democrats no cover for bad bills. Party-line, no-cover vote unless we get to bring our pens into the mix and strike out a few line items.

I agree.

For all of you, who think we need to take the high road on this one, remember,the honest man did not win.

It is our duty as Americans to get this country back to her conservative roots.

microfiction on November 7, 2008 at 11:43 AM

Excellent synopsis of why the Republicans are losing everywhere at the National and State level. The problems we Republicans face clearly are the result of the Republican leadership failing to keep the faith with Reagan’s vision.

Let’s hope conservatives regain control over the GOP.

Instead of offering specifics about how Boehner plans to change the GOP to rebuild voter trust — or even acknowledging the need to do so — Boehner instead insisted that voters got hoodwinked into supporting Democrats by Barack Obama’s talk of moderation:

Ed, it’s not either or. It’s both. The GOP does have to rebuild voter trust ..AND.. voters were hoodwinked.

You are right that the Republican party has to rebuild trust by actually putting in candidates with conservative principles and acting only on them. But you are wrong in thinking that voters want a conservative president. Voters have been reeducated by the schools and media into believing that “America is the enemy” and that we are forcing liberty upon other nations.

If the democrats have done anything right it is in pushing their liberal agenda through the schools and media.

That’s where the battlefront really lies. Until conservatives recognize this the map is only going to get bluer or Europeanized.

Grassroots organizations are likely to be the only effective method against what the liberals already control.

Clearly, the people wanted change. They got it and it remains to be seen whether they realized what they bargained for. But we are also looking for change in the Republican party. When the bloodletting is finished perhaps the Conservatives will remain standing.

Dear GOP

Start writing bills instead of writing mission statements.

Assembly instructions are more important then the pretty picture on the box.

As for the RNC, NRSC, and NRCC, they need to fire the ones they have and get some new ones.