If the President wins, it'll be a testimonial to a masterful campaign
and it will upend a lot of political history and political wisdom
Yep, Mitt's a lousy candidate, but the environment is such that the challenger should be handily ahead. His contribution to Obama's lead is certainly not insignificant, but I think that an even greater factor, is President Obama's team is running a campaign that will be a textbook example of how to run a campaign for years to come, should he win.
They've done things right. First of all, they didn't lose a second in framing Mitt (thanks George Lakoff) as an out of touch, rapacious, uncaring business tycoon. Furthermore they framed him as anti-American by emphasizing his outsourcing of jobs and his outsourcing of his own wealth. They stuck it to him on his taxes and although that hasn't been a recent focus, we can be sure that they haven't forgotten the matter.
The Obama team has managed to persuade large segments of the voting public that the President isn't responsible for the lousy economy and that things are improving. That in itself is an amazing accomplishment
Paul Ryan, of course, was a gift. It didn't take much to wrap his budget around Mitt as he'd already embraced it. Still, they didn't just leave it to chance.
So far there have been few blunders and none that I can think of that have thrown them off track. It's been a pleasure to watch democrats fight back so well.