I agree, but in a different way.
Obama vanquished Hillary. That counted for a LOT in many people’s eyes.
I suspect many people were turned off by Palin, though that was due to SNL and other provocateurs and spin doctors.
Finally, Obama didn’t seem like a full-on radical leftist. He campaigned as the change agent. For people who cherished America, and to a certain extent who had guilt on their conscience, voting for Obama could cleanse their soul.
Pour all that into the blender, and you get a massive victory.
Fast-forward 4 years. There is a LOT of buyers regret.
Thankfully, Obama turned into a party girl. Our friend LS said, in retrospect, Obama could have done a ton of damage, but he was so drunk with adulation, people fawning all over him nationally and globally, that he didn’t go for the jugular. Yeah, we declined, but it could a been worse.
Obama’s REAL destruction was how divisive he was. People thought they were voting for a common unifier. Instead we got a guy who set back race/class/philosophy relations decades.