>My point is that outside the big cities, the country has been drifting toward the right since the Reagan era and it will take either an usually strong candidate like Obama or a Watergate-like event to reverse that trend.
>

Once again, and I'm sorry if I keep pounding the point - "why" was Obama such a strong candidate? He never held an executive role - had a poor attendance record in the Senate - and little in the way of practical real-world legal experience.

You've answered the effect of Obama many times (i.e., how people reacted to him, how people felt inspired), but I'm really more interested in what specific attributes he had that gave McCain and Romney little chance?