CONFIDENCE FIRST
This fairly routine issues-vs.-image analysis from the CSM's Linda Feldmann concludes with a smart observation from the smart Karlyn Bowman:
Karlyn Bowman, an expert on polling at the American Enterprise Institute, sees a two-step process in voter decisionmaking. First, she says, people want a "threshold level of confidence in the individual, a feeling you could sit down in a living room and relate that person, feel comfortable with that person in their stewardship of policy." Then, she says, "the issues follow from that."
That's why seemingly qualified candidates run into trouble if they seem weird--watch out, Wesley Clark. It's also why the star candidates--Reagan, Clinton, Arnold--combine familiarity with charisma. We don't really know them, and if we did they'd lose some of their magic, but we like to think we know them. (That combination was, I think, much of Colin Powell's appeal as a fantasy candidate for Republicans.)