Obama's KISS strategy will win

In my view the KISS strategy (Keep It Simple Stupid) underpins the reasons that Obama is going to win election tomorrow as the next President of the US. Obama actually understood what the issues were, and he kept his campaign focused on those issues. Race, religion, and even foreign policy were secondary to the early campaign focus on the war, and the later focus on the economy. In keeping the campaign grounded on what the actual issues were that were important to us as voters, and in fact, to adapt that focus from the war to the economy in the later stages of the campaign, left us with a feeling that Obama would be a better captain of the economy than McCain, thereby closing the sale.

In the current political and economic climate, a play off the old prosecutorial adage seems appropriate -- we could have elected a ham sandwich to the White House. Obama, however, is no ham sandwich. He has very clearly articulated that he has the capacity and the capability to think through, and actually understand the issues. We undoubtedly need a clear thinker to guide us through our current issues. We need a serious person in this job, someone who has the mental capacity to grasp the issues, think them through and make a decision; someone who is calm, unflappable, and can stay the course. This election cycle of almost 2 years has to have been among the longest, most arduous, and challenging races for the Presidency. The person who was going to win a race like this would have to show the skill and ability to understand, face, and manage the issues, raise an enormous war chest, and execute his plan in a manner that kept a vast organization of people motivated, spirited, challeged, on-point and focused. In achieving this, Obama demonstrated considerable skill and leadership, and, surprisingly, experience. Although running a successful campaign cannot be compared to successfully running the country; running such a successful campaign again against a veteran senator and all the power, connections, money, and guerilla tactics that have felled many prior Democratic candidiates certainly went a long way toward making us feel like Obama can lead us through this chapter in our history.

Nevertheless, Obama was helped by the fact that John McCain discarded the personality and embrace of his core self that had propelled and guided him to such a remarkable and succesful carrer as a military hero and attractive politician. Had the McCain of the campaign been the McCain of the past, i.e. the independent minded guy, the politician who actually answered questions based upon what he believed in and what he stood for, and not for what he though people wanted to hear; had he continued to just be himself and not a manufactured candidiate pandering to all those disparate constituencies of the Republican party, he might have had a chance. As it stands now he is just confusing himself and all of us, and has no shot of convincing the electorate what it is that he actually stands for. The voters are very smart and, particularly in this election, they are very savvy. McCain should have kept it simple and just been himself.

As an immigrant, a caucasian child of Africa, and growing up in the face of Apartheid, the fact that Obama could so successfuly put forth his case for the presidency based upon his human strengths of mental capability, determination, good choices, and steely leadership, while allowing the race and religion issues to not become a determinant of executive capability was to me an enormous and historical achievement, and could be part of the glue that unites and weaves this country into its next successful chapter.