What's going on is not an ideological crack-up but a branding crack-up. Rejection of the Republican Party today is not a rejection of limited government and traditional values. It is a rejection of what the Republican Party morphed into.

The Democratic Party, on the other hand, has remained true to its principles of big government and moral relativism. And it's not registering more enthusiasm among voters.

It just doesn't take rocket science or an expensive political consultant to appreciate that voters are, for darned good reason, unhappy. Politically, what being unhappy means is either not voting or voting for whatever the alternative is.

What also is happening is we are witnessing a phenomenon that, at least for the time being, is personal -- not ideological.

Obama is succeeding in tapping into the public's general disgust with everything and using his considerable charm and calm and reassuring persona to exploit it.

It's why he may succeed in flip-flopping all over the place and taking liberties with the details of stands he takes over time. Much of the enthusiasm he is generating is not being generated by those details. It is being generating by him.

The Pew Research Center recent report shows an incredible gap in visibility of the two candidates. They report 71 percent visibility of Obama and 11 percent for McCain. This is the "percentage of the public that has heard the most about each candidate that week."

Roger Ailes, president of Fox News, says in his book "You Are the Message" how he helped Ronald Reagan get re-elected in 1984 by getting him to stop worrying about details and just be himself. And, in fact, Reagan's campaign that year was about "morning in America."

So the 2008 election is about change. It's not ideology. It's personal. And those who care about limited government and traditional values should be worried.