Barack Obama's connection to historical Democrats

I have a special interest in history, so I tend to try and find parallels with our candidates for president and candidates of the past. This has lead me to Obama's appeal, in previous post I have made the fallacy of looking at his politics. His typical northeastern democrat politics, only to state the obvious he is from a "Midwestern state". When the Democrats have won elections since the 1960's they have won with a combination of one or two things. One and most important I believe is a candidate that sends out positive vibes, in their liberalism they see hope for America's future like John F Kennedy. They also have a down to earth appeal as I am sure we all would agree JFK despite his credentials was a down to earth guy. So the personality is a positive outlook from a down to earth guy. The other factor that has helped Democrats is coming from a southern state. This helps to shake the elitist image the Democrats have gotten since their move to the social left. lets take a look at the successful and unsuccessful democratic candidates since the 1960's when the party started its move to the left.

John F Kennedy- Senator Massachusetts, won election of 1960
Lyndon B Johnson - Vice President and before that Senator from Texas, won election of 1964
Hubert H Humphrey- Vice President and before that Senator from Minnesota, lost election of 1968
George Mcgovern- congressmen from South Dakota, anti-war social liberal, lost election of 1972
Jimmy Carter- Governor of Georgia, one of our worst Presidents, won election of 1976
Carter after a horrible term as president loses election to Ronald Reagan.
Walter Mondale- Vice President of Carter before that Senator from Minnesota, lost election of 1984
Michael Dukakis- Governor of Massachusetts, lost election of 1988
Bill Clinton- Governor of Arkansas, won 1992,1996
Al Gore- Here is one that loses in spite of being from Tennessee and serving as a Vice President for a popular President. However Gore's liberal politics and the fact that he was actually raised in Washington, DC discredited his candidacy.lost election of 2000
John Kerry, Senator from Massachusetts, lost election of 2004

Now if Barack drags in the mud gets a stigma from being liberal and lying, he loses. If he can admit his lies and explain why even though he votes like a liberal he is a moderate he stands a chance. What I mean by dragging in the mud is .... his typical negative politics that he claims to be against. His accepting the DNC's ad which perverts John Mccain's statement about 100 years in Iraq. If he can move past that and present a candidate that is a moderate liberal with a positive vision of America past, present and future I believe he can win. I personally do not want to see him win, but it is his for the taking.
AB