What would I see if I possessed your keen and penetrating insight?

I've been thinking lately about possible Republican strategies going up against a charismatic candidate with a resolutely positive and optimistic message, and I suspect you're about to give me a foretaste. Being optimistic and positive isn't a Republican forte, putting them in a weak position trying to compete along the positive axis; while a message of fear and doom-and-gloom will fail spectacularly--Americans have already had enough of the negative axis. I think the odds favor Republicans falling back on smear campaigns and dirty tricks and being generally nasty.

Several times now you've tried to preemptively rationalize Obama defeating McCain on the basis of age discrimination. You know that history doesn't support that view at all. Presidents keep setting new high-water marks for age as longevity increases. Reagan was considerably older than Carter, and in fact a senior citizen when he took office. The Constitution sets a lower age limit for the Presidency--culturally we see age as a sign of wisdom (right or wrong).

Obama's edge over McCain isn't youth, it's the contrast of his positive and uniting message and upbeat demeanor, with McCain's dour and grumpy demeanor and his continuation of Bush's message of fear and pessimism. He's the least divisive of the Republican candidates (in the general, though ironically, he's divisive inside the GOP), but he's not coming across strongly as a uniter.

That's how Reagan beat Carter, despite his age. Carter was talking about a "national malaise", while Reagan was singing about "morning in America". Carter's downbeat message gave Reagan an opportunity to look relatively more positive. This year, in any possible combination of candidates in the general, Democrats will be the ones who appear more positive.