[dennisw]

Both Obama and McCain have pulled off the once unthinkable. The former dethroned some 16 year of Clintonian political hegemony by the sheer force of personality and charisma,

Nonsense
Obama is an awful speaker.
He was the darling of the national media and that was his best advantage
Also lots of young people worked for him. They were fool enough to be inspired by him and his message of "change" LOL! These youngsters worked their butts off in the caucus states and other places. An unpaid army that Hillary lacked

Obama succeeded due to mass media and young volunteers

[Tolik]

There is a cliche about youth enthusiasm that does not translate into actual voting. Its interesting how this new cadre of naive will show up in November. Or not.