Why are Politics turning into nothing more then a popularity contest?

If you look back at any previous election, popularity was achieved through campaign ads and speeches and so on and so forth. President Obama was a freshmen senator with little to no experience in politics and literally virtually 0 experiences in foreign relations. It seems like it was because of Race. I can understand why Hilary would have had a bit of an edge; her husband was president, but predominantly being voted for by women because she was a woman. Same for Obama, African Americans voting for Obama because he is African American, or people voting for change, rather then ideals... Why is this? What happened to the good old fashion ideals and experience?