WASHINGTON -- While President-elect Obama ran a great campaign with an appealing message, the results were as much a rejection of the status quo as a mandate for any specific policies.
That was the analysis of two veteran political observers at a post-election forum today cosponsored by CUNA, the National Journal and other organizations.
"The public's fear of the status quo was greater than their fear of change," said Charles Cook, editor of The Cook Report, a political forecasting newsletter.
Gwen Ifill, the host of PBS' Washington Week in Review, said the Obama campaign took advantage of the country's mood to reshape the ways Democrats are elected president.
"Somebody had a vision of how a candidate gets beyond 51% of the vote," she said. "The preconceptions about how one wins an election had to be pushed off to the side."
Cook said it was "such a horrific, toxic environment I'm not sure there's a thing McCain could have done."
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