WickedAngel said:
He didn't.
I'm one of the last people on this board that you will see pulling the race card, but honestly...it's not a hard pill to swallow when you take everything into consideration.
Our economy is a mess, we're involved in at least one war whose foundation was built on a lie, and the Republican nominee is following a very ineffective administration.
True
You have a Democratic nominee who has bested one of the largest household names in politics (In the primaries) and who, whether you find him inspirational or not, is a great speaker, relatively modest, straightforward, and capable of running one of the most efficient campaigns of our time.
Mostly true, the problem is that Hillary ran as the inevitable candidate from the beginning, something that tends to irk voters. Throw in that Obama's young and fresh and appealed to the youth vote as well as peeling away african americans (who are overrepresented in several key states) not to mention his early upset win in Iowa which heavily white (and solidly gave him the black vote in an odd twist once they "knew he could win") and that's not that surprising. Obama had a little luck, an opponent that thought she already won, and a couple of key demographics and so he won.
He's facing a Republican candidate who is generally considered to be a lackluster persona and poor public speaker. His campaign has stumbled over itself a number of times (Even while the Democratic primaries were shielding him from the attention of those candidates) and he is surrounded by special interests.
The difference is that McCain has consistently historically appealed to moderates on both sides, people like him a lot more than the average GAFfer does. I agree McCain isn't the best speaker, doesn't have the best disposition, isn't the best looking which matters in politics these days, etc. Yet he's just got something about him that people respond to, and he came back from essentially the political dead to win the nomination, his campaign was on fumes before he recovered and won.
As with his Democratic counterpart, he's gone back and forth on a number of issues. He supports (And has supported in the past) many of the ill-advised policies of the former administration.
As you say, they both flipped, though I'd point out that with McCain's longer record in the senate compared to Obama any issue where Obama changed is going to be a little more glaring because there's slightly less of a record (again, fair or not that's reality).
You're right; it's inexcusable to throw a blanket generalization out there and say that everyone who doesn't vote for Obama is a racist (Which nobody here is doing). As I said earlier, I don't know how it can be that the election is still competitive. What I do know is that the people who don't "trust" Obama rarely ever give me a straight answer as to why and I can't help but wonder if they're being evasive because they're too embarrassed to say it out loud.
I can understand that too. I trust Obama on a personal level... actually more than some gaffers seem to. I've had gaffers at different times try to tell me he doesn't REALLY mean his current stance on drugs, that he doesn't REALLY mean his stance on same sex marriage, that he won't ACTUALLY pass a windfall profits tax... not that I'm saying you believe that, but I mean, I basically take candidates at their word and tear them down later (or cheer them as the case may be) when and if they break what they campaign on depending on if I disagree or agree with it.
Edit - Oh, and on FISA... I trusted that he wouldn't support that too. Oops.
