There are many indicators that there is a secular shift underway as the appearance of a crisis is now looming over us. What does that mean? It means a rollback to more traditional values, xenophobia, nationalism, and conservative lifestyles. This shift is going to be massive and shocking in it's scale as progressive social positions get chucked overboard to save the sinking ship of culture. How is that going to affect an Obama presidency? How will he incorporate the cultural shift and crisis into his leadership approach? He's absolutely spot on, it WON'T be politics as usual.
What are some of the indicators? The poor reception of anti-War films at the box office and the lowest Acedemy Awards ratings. The lowest rated Emmys of all time and poor ratings among fall premiers.
There is a cultural backlash underway. McCain is going to be on the receiving end. Like Mr. Miyagi said "squash like grape".
I'll be leaning heavily on the historical premises laid out in Strauss and Howe's work The Fourth Turning. Here are some more cultural indicators.
Mall's are emptying. (Culture shift and change of lifestyle)
Christmas sales look to be going in the toilet. (Hardship and culture shift)
GM is in merger talks with Chrysler. (Hardship and change of lifestyle)
OPEC is talking about cutting production, further increasing pressure on the global economies. (Hardship, lifestyle, with nationalistic and xenophobic underpinnings)
Illegal immigration bubbling to the surface again through the mortgage fiasco. (Culture shift, xenophobia, nationalism)
Voter scandals with ACORN. Do you even need a link? (Culture shifting aspects here)
All of this will lead to a major backlash against McCain.
Obama is also from the right generation (a Boomer) and generational archetype (a Prophet). Going back to the 17th century all prophet generation politicians have been in high office DURING the 4th turning crisis.
Prophets are values-driven, moralistic, focused on self, and willing to (see other people) fight to the death for what they believe in. They grow up as the increasingly indulged children of a High, come of age as the young crusaders of an Awakening, enter midlife as moralistic leaders during an Unraveling and are the wise, elder leaders of the next Crisis. The Boomers are an example of a Prophet generation
If you plot the secular cycle generationally Obama will be our next president. Obama is in the same generational track as FDR (or Lincoln) at present. He is a generational reformer that will deal with the crisis issues that we are soon to face.
On the remote chance that McCain wins the backlash against RINO's will be immense, but I still have my doubts about the likelihood of a successful McCain Presidency.
Based on my observations of cultural and historical indicators I predict that John McCain will lose in a landslide, garnering less than 200 electoral college votes. And yes I do know what the electoral map looks like right now.