It’s been the ’steady as she goes’ strategy. No wild highs when things are going great and no deep depressions when hitting tough times. Cool heads prevail…

Very well said, Leon.

Obama has a great deal more work to do to convince those likely to be afflicted by the Bradley effect so his chosen path is certainly a shrewd one. When you’re a little different to win you have to do all you can to not ‘frighten the horses’ so to speak…

There is a new study that concluded that there is no evidence of the Bradley effect this year. The Bradley effect happens when a black candidate gets far less votes than what the polls suggested. The reason of this, some say, is that whites are afraid to tell pollsters that they are not voting for the black candidate. In fact, Obama did overperform polls in some states during the primaries.

What might happen this year though, is the “reverse Bradley effect” in many Southern states – where many whites might not admit that they are voting for the black guy. Also, a lot of African-Americans are voting in the South at unprecedented levels and polls do not totally reflect that.

The genius of the Obama campaign hasn’t been the way they’ve raised money, or innovative use of new technology to inform and mobilise. It’s been the ’steady as she goes’ strategy. No wild highs when things are going great and no deep depressions when hitting tough times. Cool heads prevail…

They used it to great effect against the Clinton’s (whose campaign resembles McCain’s in the level of indecision and inability to stick to one strategy) and now McCain is being subjected to it.

Obama has a great deal more work to do to convince those likely to be afflicted by the Bradley effect so his chosen path is certainly a shrewd one. When you’re a little different to win you have to do all you can to not ‘frighten the horses’ so to speak…

How will the polls play out? I have no idea, but I have a feeling that Obama has seen detailed polls of the difficult demographics and realised the biggest advantage would be to come across as a nice guy

I think this shows one of Obama’s strengths: discipline and he is a damn good strategist. He made several mistakes along the way, but he learns from them and quickly defuses it. It takes an enormous amount of discipline to be accused of palling with terrorists or being accused of hiding something, when McCain and Sarah “Alaskan Independence Party” Palin are in a completely different league in that aspect.

Yet, he didn’t fall for that trap, because he knows that (a) that’s what McCain wants: to make the election about the candidates and not about issues, (b) it makes McCain look small and angry, (c) and voters do not like angry people.

Joe the Plumber on the other hand is an inveterate McCain supporter.

Unfortunately for McCain, Joe the Plumber is not registered to vote.

Joe the Plumber on the other hand is an inveterate McCain supporter.

One point Sunny, re McCain. He may be the other side. But I respect him enormously. Not only is he a warrior, a man’s man, it was nice to see him rebuke one of his more racist supporters when he referred to Obama as “a decent family man”.
It was only a TV snippet. I’m not a US presidential election geek. But that, perhaps, was the single most encouraging moment in the campaign.
Because that’s, ultimately, where we want to get to.