[muawiyah]

hmm ~ usually you never get any votes from the other side ~ you get either more votes from your own side, or fewer votes from your own side.

That's a far more powerful source of victory than planning on a bunch of Democrats coming down the street to pull the levers repeatedly for a Republican (which is pretty much like imagining that you could have an undecided 5 to 10% independent vote somewhere in the middle in a voting public that has no middle).

[smoothsailing]

hmm ~ usually you never get any votes from the other side

The Reagan Democrats, Nixon Democrats, McCain Democrats, Bush Democrats, and Obama Republicans would probably see it differently.

Of the above, the Reagan Democrats were quite a factor in 1980 and 1984. Reagan actually expanded on the Nixon model (Nixon Democrats-also known as the Silent Majority).

I wouldn't be the least bit surprised to be reading articles next year about the influence of the Romney Democrats on the 2012 election.