Can Obama be Beaten?

How do you overcome an emotional phenomenon with rationality?

By now most of us have seen the news stories describing the Cult of Obama, or Obamania. People cry when he speaks. Despite holding signs that say "Stand for Change" his speeches are interrupted by women fainting and falling to the ground. (Wordsmith has photos and video).

Hillary Clinton, the once annointed Queen of the Democrat Party has done everything in her power to overcome that flood of raw emotion and remind people that it takes a President, not a good speechmaker, to get the job done.

Hillary: Talk is Cheap
Warren, Ohio
MSNBC
Feb. 14, 2008

"Over the years you've heard plenty of promises from plenty of people in plenty of speeches and some of those speeches were probably pretty good, but speeches don't put food on the table. Speeches don't fill up your tank. Speeches don't fill your prescriptions or do anything about that stack of bills that keeps you up at night. That's the difference between me and my Democratic opponent: my opponent makes speeches. I offer solutions," she said to applause. "It is one thing to get people excited. I want to empower you. This is not about me. This is about you."
...
There's a big difference between us: Speeches versus solutions, talk versus action. You know, some people may think words are change, but you and I know better. Words are cheap."

If Hillary's desperate appeal for substance over style fails, what makes people think that a 71 year old Republican, even a maverick like John McCain, can bring this Obamaphoria down to earth?

It's true that McCain will draw a starker contrast ideologically between himself and Obama in a way that Hillary Clinton cannot. Both Hillary and Obama basically agree that the answer to America's problems is to kill the goose that lays the golden eggs and give poor people their last good meal. But McCain has also said that greedy Wall Street types should be "punished."

McCain will contrast his national security policy and experience with Obama who feels we should talk to our enemies and invade our friends. But will that be enough to overcome the flood of millions of new voters who don't seem to care about anything except the fact that they get emotional and tend to keel over when Obama speaks?