Really it comes down to one thing: the approach of the candidate. Obama has been positive the entire campaign, he tries not to sugarcoat things, but he still tries to keep positive and send out a positive message. He doesn't get too caught up in the blame game, he just says we need a change, and that he can deliver that change.
The thing about a President is that more than anything else, their most significant impact can be to establish a tone. That is what Reagan did more successfully than anything else, he made us feel good about our country again, after a pretty lengthy period of just having our national psyche get hammered. In a sense that was what Clinton delivered as well. Unfortunately the tone that George II has delivered has been one of fear and divisiveness and politics. From day 1 George has been about trying to win the next campaign and therefore his decisions have always been about spin and focusing on what interest groups were more significant.
Everything I have seen, heard and read from Obama has been about positive change and working together. That we as a country (everyone, not just the rich, or middle class, or white people or people of color) can work together and fix what is broken. He doesn't sugar coat things, he comes right out and admits when something is wrong, and says that we can fix it. I think that is what our country needs right now, a President who doesn't try and hide from what is wrong (like playing on his ranch while a city drowns), we need someone who says: this is broken, what can we do to fix it? And I know we can fix it if we just work together.
That is why, for the first time in 16 years I am going to vote for a major party candidate because I want that man to be president. I voted for Kerry in 04, but only because I was participating in a vote swap program so someone somewhere else would vote for Nader. I have voted strictly third party since 92. But this year I think Obama captures the elements of the third party candidates that I have liked, and has a really good chance of winning. Plus the absolute last thing I think this country needs is a pale older version of the Bush dynasty.
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