It kind of appears to me that part of Obama's strategy is to muddy the waters by taking the discussion in a direction that much of his base either cares nothing about or doesn't understand. If a person was not reasonably knowledgeable about the affairs of the day, much of this discussion would create a reaction of "um....what?"
That being the case, then it comes down to the manner in which the material is presented. People tend to like the person that seems the most confident in what they are saying if they don't fully understand what is being said. Unfortunately, this happens to be one of Obama's strong points. It is also unfortunate that we have way too many people in this country that fall into this category.