Nothing could be further from the truth. $10 million raised in a couple of days, the base on fire, volunteers mobbing field offices,...
The base is not and never was where there were votes to be found. The polls consistently showed GOP voters preferring McCain in numbers approximately those of Bush. There is no more worthless waste of time than talking to people whose votes you already have.
The problem is not how hard people press the button. It’s how many people press the button. If the base is smaller than the middle and the left wing, and Obama gets the middle, then we lose. Period.
Base enthusiasm generally translates to people walking around their neighborhood backslapping others of their same opinions whose votes they already had. It doesn’t usually translate to getting on a plane and flying to Colorado and then purposely NOT going to the deep red neighborhoods, but rather the middle/moderate neighborhoods.
We need to get this through our heads. Far right wing issues do not move left leaning people to McCain. A left leaning (as opposed to left certain) person can only be moved with evidence of “bipartisanship” and “moderation”. So horrible though it may be to us, we have to spend most of our time talking about McCain’s being on the Gang of 14, not the surge. The surge may not attract moderates. The Gang of 14 may.