Let’s be honest here, Obama is a black liberal Democrat with a funny name.

Ok, let’s be honest. Great idea. This doesn’t matter nearly as much as it used to, and to many folks it doesn’t matter at all.

Let’s be even more honest. Some people have a vested interest in continuing to insist that this still matters quite a bit, and continually keep trying to inflate folks’ impressions of how much it’s mattering.

1. The economy
2. The war(s)
3. McCain campaign blunders
4. Obama campaign advantages (money, sane managers, etc)
5. Public souring on Republicans
6. General conservative unease with McCain

Can anyone think of any more points? I mean, let’s be honest here, Obama is a black liberal Democrat with a funny name. He should have been beated down multiple times before this, and McCain should have plumbed the Clinton-Obama divide for maximum effect. Instead he dithered too long, then played his supposed trump, Palin, without considering alternatives.

With the economy going south, it looks like pundits are more interested in keeping their jobs and readership and credibility instead of being complete propaganda organs.

I strongly suspect the general public’s calculus as manifested in Obama’s poll surge of the last 3 weeks goes about like this:

Wall Street screwed up big time.
This has screwed the general public big time.
The GOP is by far the party more cozy with Wall Street.

Game. Set. Match.

The economy hurt McCain, yes. But a savvy pol, Republican or Democrat, knows how to use any bad turn of events to his advantage. McCain tried, but failed to push the idea that he could be the savior of Wall Street and therefor Main Street. Had he been able to show himself more talented in the economic arena, and not said things like, “[I don't really know much about the economy,]“, or, “[the fundamentals of our economy are sound,]” he might have had a chance. Obama played it safe, didn’t say or do much, and therefor didn’t hurt himself. However, had McCain been able to display a strong grasp of the economy (or chosen Mitt Romney as his running mate), he’d almost certainly have turned the tables on a complacent Obama.

The reason why the economic downturn helped Obama as much as it did are because of the mistakes McCain made. Whats more — and I think this is the biggie – he never set one specific line of attack on Obama. First it was inexperienced, then it was celebrity (which was actually working), and so on. Had he stuck with one consistent method of attack, and really driven that point home, he might have had a chance.

Krauthammer stole my meme!
Krauthammer stole my meme!
Krauthammer stole my meme!