As I see it, the way to beat Obama is to force him to address questions and issues in concrete, specific terms because his specialty is the vague, warm-fuzzy-feeling platitude. Another weakness is his lack of substance and experience. People invoke JFK whenever these Obama weaknesses are brought up, and point to his (JFK’s) televised debate victory over Nixon as some kind of proof that image triumphs over achievement in a mass media age, but most modern candidates—not least Thompson, Romney, and Guiliani—are equally comfortable in front of the cameras and are certainly more accomplished than Obama, thus negating any perceived image projection advantage.
That’s my take on things, anyway.