Well, he said the coal industry was going to founder and prices would increase, he promised to shut down Gitmo and end the war ASAP, he had an extremely liberal track record in the Senate and in his home state, and he promised to initiate a civilian security force. His call for “volunteers” was plainly stated on his web site and he spoke openly of his desire to share the wealth. In terms of transparency, he provided none before the campaign and now it’s the same. I think he gave us plenty of opportunities to understand what he intended to do and plenty of opportunities to see that he was withholding almost everything about his identity.
I agree that he campaigned as a conservative toward the end, but he could have said anything to his fans and it wouldn’t have made a bit of difference. It was definitely a cult of personality that was going on.
Yes, you're right. Those of us who have been paying attention for the past two years definitely had the information advantage over those who woke up long enough to listen to the rhetoric of the last few weeks of the campaign. But none of us who really knew him voted for him. Fat lot of good it did us after the oak-tree-seed crowd got done with us.