When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro. - Hunter S. Thompson

11 November 2008

Another "how he did it" article

Clive Crook, blogging at the Financial Times:
The best, most thorough, and most straightforward account of how Obama did it appears, aptly enough, on the website of Reader’s Digest, written by my friend and former colleague Carl Cannon.
Ten Reasons Why Obama Won -- Carl Cannon @ ReadersDigest.com

This is so meta, and I've always wanted to do this...

The Reader's Digest version of a story on Reader's Digest:
I. John McCain’s age: It turned out that this factor trumped race.

II. The shrinking Republican brand

III: Candidate Obama really was ‘The One’: Charisma comparable to JFK or a young Reagan.

IV: Young voters fell for Obama early—and stayed with him

V: Democrats closed the “technology gap”—and then some: Politics 2.0, and it was owned by young people, Democrats, and the Obama campaign.

VI: Money talks: This is a campaign that raised in excess of $600 million—more than it needed, more than it could spend...

VII: Intangible reason Number 1 (international opinion):In the Netherlands, 92 percent for Obama, 8 percent McCain. In Germany, 85 percent to 7 percent. This phenomenon wasn’t only present in western Europe. It existed in Asia (Taiwan’s preference was 81 percent for Obama to 6 percent for McCain.) It was true in South America, as Brazil's numbers were 78 percent to 11. It was found in Australia, a predominately white nation and member of President Bush’s “coalition of the willing”—where Obama was favored over McCain 76 percent to 10 percent.

VIII: Intangible reason Number 2; the "Bradley Backlash"

IX: The sour mood of the electorate.

X: The global economic crisis.

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