“The problem is not how hard people press the button. It’s how many people press the button.”
Bears repeating. Sometimes Freepers need to get out of the echo chamber and realize that the mushy middle doesn’t see things the way they do.
John Kerry came within 60,000 votes in OH of winning the 2004 election. That would be the John Kerry with no discernable personality and an ACU rating worse than Obama’s. And yet, time and again, Freepers confidently opine that “nobody” will vote for a far leftist like Obama.
The only hard information we have to go on is the polling so far, which indicates that Palin has not helped the ticket and that the media frenzy surrounding her personal life is hurting the McCain campaign’s efforts to get their message out. She’s clearly a hit with the base, but the base is 32% of the electorate, not nearly enough to win. Whether she will be a hit with the mushy middle, i.e., the independents and soccer moms that McCain needs to win, remains to be seen.
She needs to give the speech of her life tonight.
I disagree. We have $10 million raised in less than 72 hours over a holiday weekend. That's rock hard information, that indicates a fired up base. Without that, McCain almost certainly loses.
Does he still need some mushy middle voters? Sure. But the polling numbers are still pretty early. To read anything into them at this point is meaningless. As folks keep saying, this time next week will give us a better feel. And I expect to see a very close race once again. Just like last week. Just like 2004. And just like 2000.