Obama's Success

The comparatively sober Democratic campaign is winning over the American public in spite of the religious implementation of previously effective (but currently unsuccessful) Rovian tactics from the Republican side.

The illegitimate but fear-invoking message of a telephone operated smear campaign against McCain in the 2000 South Carolina GOP primary led in part to McCain's surprisingly sound defeat. Character assaults like those peddled by the Swift Boaters against John Kerry played a key role in deciding the 2004 Presidential election. However, in 2008 these very same strategies, implemented in some cases by the exact same people as in the aforementioned elections, are simply not working.

Steve Schmidt, currently of the McCain camp, has tried to build a fire of scandal underneath Obama with same tactics Karl Rove used in 2000 and 2004 for Bush. They and the 527's working on their behalf have tested the issue of Reverend Wright, pushed Obama's connection with Bill Ayers, tried to tie Obama to voting fraud, and have even desperately purported that he is a closet Muslim terrorist. Contrary to the success of such scandalous accusations in the last two elections, the Obama camp has continued unfazed.

Why is it that Americans are putting less stock in the character assaults of 2008?
One simple possibility is that they trust Barack Obama (unlike past Democratic candidates-Kerry and Gore).

Obama has been under intense public scrutiny for a long time and has yet to crack under the pressure. He knows how to calmly rise above GOP assaults and he also knows, when necessary, how to respond to the assaults emphatically. He demonstrated his ability to stand tall most memorably at the 2008 Democratic National Convention with a Presidentially-strong response to Republican questioning of his patriotism.
America knows who Obama is and he has successfully held control of his reputation in the face of attempted slander.
(Arianna Huffington argues another possibility in The Internet and the Death of Rovian Politics).