RetreadRand said:
COME ON????
Do you REALLY think that the conservative base would not vote for McCain and risk Hillary or Obama in the White House?
If you do...you are smoking crack.
These arguments ALWAYS play out until after the nomination...then guess what happens? each party comes out in full force loyal to their candidate.
The conservatives who bash McCain will become supporters...the old democrats who like Hillary will be in full force for Obama..
it Happens EVERY election!
and you know why? Because, contrary to what I want to believe, elections are NOT about ideologies...they are about keeping your party in POWER...PERIOD.
Sniffing glue is my high of choice, but I won't split hairs.
Of course I believe that. Will churches be filling up vans in rural areas to take people to vote for McCain? Nope. Will hard core bible-thumpers wait in line in the rain to fill out a ballot for him, or will they keep driving when they see bad weather and annoying crowds at their polling place? Do you really think that Conservatives always vote Republican and that everyone one of them votes in every elections? Or that every liberal always votes and always votes Dem? If so, then you glue must be a lot stronger than mine.
That would mean that every election always comes down to only 1 factor, the independents.
It isn't just about capturing the undecided. No one proved that more than GWB himself. Instead of moving to the center to get as many of those votes as possible, he and Rove moved him as far right as possible so that the evangelicals would come out in force for him. And it worked brilliantly. Those people never would have voted for Kerry. Never in a million years. But it was the way that Bush and Rove worked them that made him successful because they might not have voted at all. Bush got in to office not by getting the middle to swing his way. He so inspired the far right that he was able to reduce the voter attrition in that group enough that he won. Anyone who might have just gone home after a long day of work instead made sure they stopped to vote. Those who didn't have rides benefited from the passionate Evangelicals who picked them up and drove them. It was the far right that elected Bush, and it was his attention to them that got him into office, because he made them get off their indifferent asses and vote.
McCain doesn't have that draw with the far right. He doesn't hate abortionists quit enough. He doesn't mention God enough. So yes, I believe that it is very likely that many of the people who voted for Bush will stay home for McCain. On the other hand, he has far more chance than Bush did at picking up the independents, so that may be where he makes his money.
THIS one is scarin' me .... 
