Who's "electable"?

In the Deseret News, Orrin Hatch says in regard to Mitt Romney's presidential prospects as a Mormon:

"If you did a poll and said, 'Could a divorced actor be elected as president, would you vote for a divorced actor as president,' my guess is 70 percent would say no. But then they saw Ronald Reagan, they heard him, they heard his vision they heard his experience, they said I like Ronald Reagan, I'm voting for him."

Though I hate to admit it, I agree with Hatch here. Politics is about identity more than issues, and Democrats often get hung up on specific points of a candidate's resume. Howard Dean thought Reagan was unelectable, and we know how that turned out. Time and again, "unelectable" candidates get elected. I think it's safe to say that no candidate is unelectable simply because he or she is Mormon, divorced, Jewish, black, Catholic, Hispanic, or female. We shouldn't be so quick to discount either a Republican candidate or a Democratic candidate based on just those criteria.