One other thought on the McCain campaign’s to-do list for the spring, summer and fall. One of the key elements of Obama’s appeal isn’t his policies, his views, or people’s belief of what he would do as president. It’s how he makes them feel.

Andrew Kohut:

While Mr. Obama’s positive personal image plays an important role in his high favorable ratings, the polling found that his ratings are more influenced by how he makes voters feel than by specific characteristics they attributed to him. In particular, views that Mr. Obama inspires hope and pride are the strongest determinants of a person’s opinion of him. In other words, he is a charismatic candidate who has made large numbers of Democratic voters feel good, and this is even more important to them than specific perceptions of him.

More from that report:

Similarly, African Americans and whites express significantly different opinions about Barack Obama. Fully 82% of black Democratic and Democratic-leaning independent voters say Obama has made them feel proud, but just over half of white Democrats (53%) express this view. And while overwhelming majorities of white Democratic voters say Obama is inspiring (80%) and down-to-earth (78%), and that he makes them feel hopeful (68%), even greater shares of blacks attribute these characteristics to Obama (92% inspiring, 92% down-to-earth, and 87% hopeful).

People feel good expressing their support for Obama. Hollywood stars and hip-hop artists do music videos about how cool you are, and how you’re one of the ones we’ve been waiting for. I can’t help but suspect that some people believe that their support of Obama is proof that they’re a good person. (How many people believe their Obama bumper sticker irrefutably disproves any accusation of racism?)

So how does one disassociate Barack Obama the candidate from feelings of “I am a good person because I support him”? There are probably a couple of different paths, but I suspect ridicule is a useful route. The “We Are The Ones” video, complete with cultlike chanting of “O-ba-ma, O-ba-ma,” people claiming that he’s “healing people’s souls,” the fact that Obama campaign recruiters are told to tell others how they “came to” the candidate, the regular fainters in the crowd, the declaration from Oprah that he is The One…

This is just a variation of religious door-to-door salesmen showing up on your front stoop, or the slickest televangelist emoting for donations, or the various missionaries that Robert Stack punches out on the way into the airport in Airplane!. Americans roll their eyes when corporations roll out slogans that are variations of Bob the Builder’s motto of “yes, we can!”; they should not be nodding amiably for an entire year when a politician does the same.