The man is telling you exactly what you want to hear.
see, i’m actually weirded out more by how carefully obama manages to screw up. like, he makes the political mistakes that are perfect for him to display ‘humanity’ (or the flaws that make his message come across as more believable), but these errors are also not going to alienate or bother his voter base.
the arugula debacle, or the bitterness comments, or the reverend - they show that he can make mistakes and deal with the fall-out, but they are also easily dismissed as meaningless by the people who would be interested in obama anyways. the young, idealistic people, the elite democrats who are tired of the old guard they are very much a part of? they eat arugula from whole foods. they think the unemployed, christian fundamentalist, gun-toting segment of the population is bitter and grasping at straws. they don’t really consider the statements of a reverend the same as the statements of the candidate himself.
barack obama manages to screw up just enough for the press to declare he’s not going to play the old politics game, but not enough that it hurts him. and, hilariously, his screw ups serve to further the fervor of his supporters, because they feel the same way but know they aren’t allowed to say it.
obama might be a marketing genius, but i think it’s more in his ability to tell you exactly what you want to hear while acting on the fairly innocuous things that you aren’t allowed to want to hear.
that said, my major argument for obama is the ‘more perfect union’ speech. this is a man who can take a complex, rage-inducing, impossible issue, explore both sides fairly, break it down into simple terms that anyone can understand, explain the problems and how to deal with them in a convincing manner, and do all of that synthesis, argumentation, and crafting by himself.
i can’t think of a better description for a job of world-leader than: takes complex situations, gathers information from experts, determines the issues and action needed, then sells it to his countrymen in terms they can understand. the ability to sell the right path to your democracy is at least as important as the ability to determine the right path, in my mind.
then again, i work in PR. so, the framing and presentation of information and decisions is pretty important in my world-view.