Excellent points, Ron. I think you're dead right.

"What a candidate needs is both the intellectual and the emotional aspect." Yessiree.

And..." in the primaries, it's the emotional which tends to dominate. It's true believers--on any part of the political spectrum--which are the most valuable to the candidate. Especially early. Since they are willing to go all out for the candidate, when he or she most needs it."

Obama was an extremely effective campaigner on both the intellectual and the emotional counts. I found Kucinich to be the finest campaigner in an intellectual sense...that is, he was saying what made the most sense to me...but he was too far outside the mainstream power structure to ever have a chance, and he also could not match Obama's mastery of the emotional pitch...nor could he get the kind of funding Obama did.

Sarah Palin is a very good emotional campaigner. That counts for a lot in an election. She comes up short on the intellectual side...unless you agree with her, of course! ;-) And those who support her do.