Thread:Comments:United States re-elects Barack Obama/A truly terrible day, IMO./reply (12)

(I apologize for the extended delay in my response -- I've been bogged down with RL these past few weeks, but hopefully the momentum of an interesting discussion isn't completely dissipated).

I'm inclined to agree that the delivery of ideology is based mostly, if not wholly, upon a candidate's level of charisma. This, while it does not result in ideology and charisma becoming independent variables (I agree with you in that regard) is proof (in my mind, at least) that charismatic candidates consistently do better electorally and politically among swing voters (who, needless to say, decide the outcome in close elections) than their less charismatic counterparts. Take the U.S. Senate race in Missouri. As you wrote above, the GOP nominated several less than nominal candidates (and that's the optimistic way of putting it) in races that should have been easy wins. Todd Akin would have won the Missouri (a red state) race had he not made his politically fatal gaffe about abortion. The result was a Democratic hold in a red state that really should have been (according to all conventional political logic) an easy pick-up. The exact same thing took place in Indiana, where Richard Mourdock's far-right wing views alienated the right-leaning (they're most certainly not hard-right, to be sure) independents in the state, resulting in a Democratic pickup in another red state (one would suspect, however that Donnelly will be one of the more vulnerable incumbents in 2018, unless of course the GOP puts up another gaffe-generator).

Thus, while charisma and ideology aren't independent variables, it's charisma (or the lack thereof) that made the difference in these races--not just ideology. Mourdock's and Akin's apparent lack of charisma (in a broad sense, meaning the ability to avoid putting one's foot in his mouth) is what pushed (for lack of a better term) these very slight right-leaning independents (especially those with moderate social views) to assume these off-color moments are part of the ideology and subsequently vote the other way. What it all comes down to among the politically non-inclined, in my mind, is charisma or the lack thereof.