“This stuff also turns away moderate republicans, who, hate them or not, will be necessary to get into the fold to elect our candidate in 2012.”
Aha.
That’s the clue.
The reason the Repubs didn’t win this time is not because moderate (aka “non-conservative”) Repubs didn’t vote, but because conservative Repubs have been tossed under the bus repeatedly.
Do you really think someone more conservative would have won this election? The deck was stacked against any R running—I’m amazed it was as close as it was. If Hillary had run, it would have been a bigger margin of victory. Obama was a great campaigner, but a horrible candidate. Bush was a millstone around any Republican’s neck, that’s the main reason Obama won. That and the fact that we truly wanted to get past race and elect a black president.
Not that electing Obama will get us past race, but that was the hope among many.
I know from personal experience that lots of potential McCain voters turned away because of Palin. I know overall she was a boost, but around philly, she was a negative. And I love her. I wrote an opinion piece for the paper trying to unravel the negative views of her, I was so frustrated at the level of animosity.