When you really look at the polls, you will find that the biggest reason Barrack Obama is leading John McCain is the female vote. According to the most recent Gallup Poll, 54% of the female electorate favors Obama, while only 39% admit a preference for McCain. The simple fact is that Barrack Obama is the ladies’ choice.

            Indeed, if Saturday Night Live really wants to put on a timely and funny skit about the presidential election, then it would resurrect The Ladies Man, but instead of Tim Meadows, the star of the skit, Leon Phelps, would be played by none other than Barrack Obama. Yes, I can see it now, the Great Obama with a snifter of Courvoisier, doling out advice about how to attract female voters.

            So, what is it about Obama that gets the ladies’ attention? Is it because he is so “sexy,” as Barbara Walters cooed during Obama’s visit to The View? Is it because he is such a wonderful husband and father, as we were told by US Weekly? Maybe it’s simply his slim and trim build and sexy way he rolls up his shirt sleeves on the campaign trail.

            All these factors may be at play but I have some different factors for you to consider—psychological factors from the depths of the unconscious--the stuff that dreams are made of. Let me explain.

            At the turn of the 20^th Century, Sigmund Freud brought the science of psychology and the notion of the unconscious mind into the mainstream of modern medical practice. (Of course, the ancients studied the unconscious thousands of years ago but that is not germane to this discussion.) Freud’s notion of the unconscious was rather narrow. For the most part, he viewed it as a dark cauldron of repressed desires.

            Then came Carl Jung, a Swiss contemporary of Freud, who adopted Freud’s views in part but expanded the notion of the unconscious to include far more than a mere cauldron of repressed wishes and feelings. Indeed, from Jung’s point of view, the vast unconscious includes all that ever has been known or has been perceived. He considered it a vast ocean on which the conscious ego floated like a small cork.

            Many may not be familiar with Jung but most are familiar with his concept of complexes, such as inferiority complexes, mother complexes, father complexes, etc. Simply put, Jung believed these complexes are small splinter personalities that exist within the unconscious of all people. He also believed that when these complexes are activated the events of daily existence, they actually take a certain measure of control over the conscious ego. This is why we often here it said that people are not acting “like themselves.”

            So, what does all this have to do with female adoration of the Great Obama?

            One of the complexes that reside within the unconscious is the soul image. For women, who usually (but not always) show a feminine persona to the outside world, the soul image is masculine. Jung called it the animus. For men, who usually (but not always) show a masculine persona to the outside world, the soul image is feminine and is called the anima. In other words, the soul image tends to be the inverse of the persona.

            When a woman comes upon a man who has the same or similar attributes as her animus, she will have a tendency to project her soul image upon the man. This leads to a powerful, almost hypnotic attraction. As the living representative of her soul (or soul mate), the man can do little or no wrong. The woman’s conscious ego, seeking compensation and balance, can do very little to resist a man upon whom she has projected her soul image. And to make matters worse, the woman is not even conscious of what is going on. She simply knows the guy in her sights is dreamy. (By the way, let me make it perfectly clear that this is not a sexist observation. The phenomenon works the very same way for men.)

            So, my thesis is that many (but certainly not all) of today’s politically active, professional women unconsciously view Obama as their soul mate. He is the calm, confident, and powerful reciprocal to conscious egos of women who feel anxious, worried, and offended by a world they view as dominated by masculine unfairness, harassment, and intimidation. His image and its perceived attributes are the perfect antidote (compensation) for all that ails these unhappy women. So, it is no wonder that he is their dream candidate for President of the United States.

            But there may be even more to this story. There may be forces at play that go beyond the complexes of individual women or groups of women. In addition to being a soul image for many women, it may be that Obama is the image of an archetypal messiah to the “collective unconscious” of some subset of the universal electorate. This subset likely includes women but may also include many men. The infamous Lewis Farrakhan recently referred to Obama as the messiah to a group of his faithful from the Nation of Islam. And, of course, we all know by now that Obama’s acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention was like something of the New Testament, according to MSNBC’s Chris Matthews, who also candidly admitted that Obama’s speech sent “a tingle” up his leg.

            Again, let me explain. In addition to the concept of the “personal” unconscious, Jung believed there is a much deeper layer of the unconscious that is common to all people. He called this deeper layer the “collective unconscious.” In it, according to Jung, reside all the experiences of mankind since the beginning of time.  Among the contents of this vast “collective unconscious” are certain clusters of psychic energy that represent events and experiences that have been repeated many times throughout mankind’s existence. For example, mankind has experienced many different types of leaders. Some have been wise and benevolent and their collective energy is typically represented by the archetypal image of a wise and stately king. Other leaders have been selfish and vicious and their collective energy is typically represented by the archetypal image of a tyrant. When people see an image of what they perceive to be a wise king or a tyrant, they don’t need anyone to explain what they mean. They know them because they have been around in various forms since the dawn of time.

            Barrack Obama and his campaign have done a masterful job of creating an image of the perfect ruler, i.e, Obama the Messiah. Just as people recognize the image of the wise king or the tyrant, they also recognize the image of the Messiah, which represents the perfected man who has all the attributes of the wise king, the warrior, the priest, and the lover. In a sense, the Messianic image is the “perfect storm” for a ruler archetype. All wise, all powerful, all knowing, and all compassionate. This is precisely what the Obama campaign has accomplished (with the strong support of a loving mainstream media). It has packaged Obama as the angel of change. The last best hope for all humanity.

            In sum, I believe, the Obama image (as opposed to the Obama reality) has taken prisoner the egos of many women who have no conscious idea of why they feel such love for this candidate. On top of that, many people, both women and men, see the Obama image as the great messiah who can cure all ills, right all wrongs, forgive all sins, and unite all people.

            How scary is this? One needs to look back only 70 years to Germany for the answer. The power of images to invoke the personal and collective unconscious energies of mankind cannot be overstated. This is what John McCain has been up against. This is the real reason he is behind in the polls.