In order for a president to be transformational, the old order has to fall as the orthodoxies that kept it in power exhaust themselves.

Mitt Romney won the GOP nomination on a platform of 'self-deportation' for illegal immigrants - and the Obama team never let Hispanics forget it. The Obama campaign also branded Republicans with Romney's ill-chosen words about 47 percent of Americans as the party of uncaring millionaires.

In the 2012 campaign, the president successfully transformed the most intense conservative positions into liabilities on immigration and the role of government.

John Dickerson Quotes