All good points, and true with voters who actually pay attention to issues. However, for low information, short attention span voters who will decide the election he has done two other things:
- Managed to communicate his positive personality and message directly to voters, bypassing what had been a highly successful attempt to paint him as a greedy, aloof, bumbler.
- Managed to force 0bama -- and more importantly, his handlers -- into the realization that 0bama could lose. A huge part of the myth that was Barack 0bama was created during the last election cycle. He was calm, rational, and invincible. A person whose image has been created entirely on this fiction cannot afford to play a catch-up game, where negativity destroys the effect not only of unbeatability, but unflappability and likability as well.
The net effect has been to drive Romney's personal connection with voters way up, and 0bama's way down. Many soft-headed voters now see what we've seen all along: that 0bama is petulant, egotistical, intellectually light-weight and emotionally weak.
Well written analysis. Four states are voting on gay marriage next week. The first 32 voted against gay marriage. We’ll see what happenes. With that said, the issue really isn’t about gay marriage. It’s about a states right to define marriage. I personally think a state has that right.