Obvious?
The concept that the only objective criteria for deciding the qualificiations, effectiveness, ability, and above all, ideology, of a president is how long he's been in office? That was "obvious?"
Again, did you vote for Reagan in 1984? Bush in 2004? If you didn't, there must have been reasons, and you just blew your own premise out of the water.
And what have the Democrats been running on? Free birth control. Dogs on car roofs. Teenage haircuts.