Obama’s “Hope and Change” message was an appeal to certain voters who would be manipulated by that. It is similiar to the Republican’s pleasing the evnagelicals, who would probably be manipulated by the hope message or some other emotional issue if the evangelical agenda wasn’t kept at the forefront for them.

You can’t really expect that Obama would not compete for as much or the dumb , easily manipulated, vote as he could. I am not saying a lot of smart people didn’t vote for each party, but they were not really expecting some immense change and aren’t upset about it. The dumb vote will not realize that they are routinely duped. They will just try harder next time for the candidate who most pushes the right buttons.