It wasn't all that brilliant. As the affirmative action candidate, people decided he was entitled. He had it in the bag. His race was all anyone talked about, and still talk about. The first black man to run for president. Let's vote for him. Aren't we holy?
I think the only thing that the campaign did that was "brilliant" was to hide their candidate from scrutiny by employing the platitudes of "hope" and "change". By doing so, no one got to know him well enough to dislike him. This strategy no longer works in the general.
to echo your thought, didn’t that win come against the same Hillary Clinton who had the highest negatives in the known universe?
Iraq is what drove BO’s march to the nomination over Hillary.
Now that Iraq has stabilized, the underlying rationale for BO’s campaign has evaporated. He really has nothing to say.
also and/or his annointment by the media, Ted Kennedy, etc., they didn’t want Billy and Hilly again...