Obama reaps a bumper harvest at home, but EU isn’t ripe for him yet

IN politics, it is better to be lucky than to be good. Barack Obama ran a smart, disciplined, well-funded campaign.

He also turned conventional Democratic political wisdom on its head by running a 50-state campaign rather than focusing simply on core urban states. But he was the beneficiary of plain old good luck, too.

The backdrop to the 2008 presidential campaign was especially fortunate. The drawn-out war in Iraq where the exit strategy is still not fully formed certainly helped.