"Hope", "Change","Yes We Can", "I'm not going to have to worry about putting gas in my car. I'm not going to have to worry about my mortgage."
You're joking, right? If you don't appeal to the shallow, you have zero chance. It's a cruel but undeniable fact of political life. What would motivate you to deny something so obvious?
Presumably that, as a conservative, I have more faith in the intellect of the American electorate than you.
Obama's win was predicated on a shallow premise, I'd agree.
But it was better than what the opposing candidate was offering. He was not only a "moderate", he was a timid pile of crap. McCain offered nothing -- to nobody.
Any conservative who is willing to actually BE a conservative will defeat Obama in 2012.