Words do matter!

This article does as good as job as I've seen in explaining Obama's appeal.

A small sample:
"What some of us don't understand is that Obama is not running a campaign; he is rallying a movement. After seven years of what may go down as the worst presidency ever, after the grime of the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal, after dreary years of internecine sniping where ideological purity has routinely trumped national interest, Americans want something else. Something higher.

Whether Obama can deliver that something else is a fair question. But the thing is, he recognizes and responds to the hunger for it. That's the reason Clinton can't lay a glove on him, the reason he's won 10 primaries in a row, the reason he's cracked her coalition and even inspired Republicans to switch parties."