What I meant, gnu, was that the Americans usually will vote for someone they see as "manly" and "a regular guy", with emphasis on those rugged, tough, plain-talkin' frontier qualities that they associate with mythic figures like John Wayne, Dan'l Boone, Davy Crockett, "Honest Abe" chopping wood beside his log cabin, etc. They have a deep suspicion of Ivy League types and city-bred intellectuals...people who presumabely are way too smart and subtle to be trusted by "plain folks".

Ronald Reagan played perfectly on those sensibilities, as he appeared to embody that heroic frontier mythos. George Bush did well too by seeming to be the plain-talking "regular guy"...a Texas cowboy, in effect.

John Kerry, on the other hand, was easy to attack as a perceived representative of the Eastern rich elites...the moneyed people...not the trustworthy "plain folks".   

Yes, Obama got elected despite not fitting into the usual pattern of the type of candidate Americans like to elect, but there was a very simple reason for that: it was the preceding 8 years of George Bush!!!!!!!!! The election was a big negative reaction to that 8 years and a fervent desire to utterly reverse it by electing its polar opposite. The utter reversal was (presumably) to elect Obama!

This can happen in any country when one extreme of political style...even a VERY popular one...is given enough rope to hang itself! (meaning: enough time in power) It took 8 wretched years of George Bush in the White House to cause a majority of Americans to reject the "plain folks" cowboy stereotype and opt instead for a sophisticated half-Black city intellectual like Obama. That sort of thing won't happen often in the USA...but it can happen after 8 years of something as lousy as the Bush administration. It's the angry pendulum swing to the other extreme. The same thing happened in Canada after the Trudeau era finally ended and Mulroney won bigtime. Then it happened after 2 terms of Mulroney...the Conservatives were utterly massacred as the public repudiated Mr Mulroney. He'd been given enough rope to hang himself.

Now Obama is being given enough rope (time in office) to hang himself (figuratively, not literally). We shall see if he "succeeds" doing that...or if he doesn't. I make no predictions about that.