Maybe this explains the appeal of Obama. He makes people feel good--that they don't have to fight. He makes them think that John Lennon's Imagine world is just around the corner.
He will be an enormously difficult candidate to fight as he has learned how to manipulate this particular strain of thinking. Every attempt to "discriminate" between Obama and McCain will be met with the response that the speaker is picking a fight and fighting is bad. Look at how hard a time HRC is having attacking him. And look at his responses. HRC punches. He replies in sorrow that she just punched him and in't that sad?
Of course, that's what elections are. Two sides pick a fight and ask people to discriminate between candidates. So we may be having our first truly post-modern election--especially given the high level of agreement between the two candidates on most issues. The election will end up being about not-fighting. Any issue that makes people uncomfortable--illegal immigration, abortion--will just disappear.
As an aside, that's also why so many--even on FR--get so angry when abortion protesters show pictures of aborted babies. It poses the issue of right and wrong in a way that cannot be ignored and places the relativist in severe mental contradiction. What they see is evil. They know it. But that forces them to discriminate whether they like it or not--to call evil by its name. And on some deep, gut level, they know that doing so is evil. So instead of having an epiphany, they attack the person who forced them into this uncomfortable situation.
However, the one GOOD thing about McCain is that he IS a vicious fighter, and can be just as nasty as the Dems.