When this election is all over on November 5th, it will do us well to look back on the previous campaign and compare and contrast the differing strategies used by various candidates.

Whether you agree with Obama's political positions or not, only the most jaundiced political partisan (*coughRichardHobbs*cough) would deny the fact that Barack Obama waged a masterful 20-month campaign for the presidency.

There have been a handful of exceptional campaigns run in the past 50 or so years. Some of the best ones IMHO:

• 1960: JFK uses the power of television
• 1968: Richard Nixon is the first to use modern advertising techniques
• 1976: Jimmy Carter runs the last truly populist campaign with the "peanut brigade"
• 1980: Ronald Reagan harnesses the power of conservative churches
• 1992: Bill Clinton uses "triangulation" to run as a "centrist"
• 2000: George W. Bush uses a complex program of tax cuts, populism and fundamentalism
• 2008: Barack Obama builds an enormous 47-state political organization from the ground up using teh Internets

There have been some sloppy campaigns as well: Mondale 1984 ("I'll raise your taxes!") Dukakis 1988 (willie horton and "tank moment") and Bush 2004 (cult of personality, didn't build Republican brand).

McCain's campaign didn't reach the elite level of incompetence, but it ran a decidedly pedestrian average campaign in exciting times. McCain jettisoned his entire campaign staff in favor of the 2004 Bush brain trust and the result was a muddled inconsistent message. McCain is not a gifted speaker, and an inconsistent message delivered by a so-so messenger has put him in the position he is today: down double digits and fading in the stretch.

Barack hasn't been perfect, but he's played consistently well throughout the campaign and I think the general public is rewarding him for that consistency with their votes.