Apparently, as the GOP faces utter humiliation at the ballot box on November 4, it has become the fashion to tar, smear and slander their fellow Americans.
Can I just say, I am astounded at the McCain campaign's ability to shoot itself in the foot. Pre-debate three, he was headed for ignominious defeat. Since then, the race actually tightened. He finally found something that resonated with the voters - hammering Obama's comment that he wanted to spread the wealth around, raising fears of the combination of a liberal Congress and a liberal White House. (Not nearly enough of a shift to turn the election, but made things look more respectable.)
But since then, this line of attack has produced a progression of people nursing a self-absorbed persecution complex charging that pretty much half the country hates real Americans. Palin had to apologise, Hayes has had to retract (more or less), Bachman turned a safe re-election into a real fight (her comments are my personal favourite), and the McCain campaign is again the story. Its message has once again stalled while it tries to defend itself from charges of dividing the nation.
The latest tracking polls show Obama building on his lead again.
I think most undecideds are people who are unhappy with the Republicans and don't really like McCain, but are afraid of Obama. So that's why Obama's campaign has been purposefully designed to show Obama as calm, approachable, cool under pressure, and reassuring. And I think most of the undecideds have tipped towards Obama because of the success of that campaign.
I thoroughly agree. Especially with the debates, Obama has shown himself to be calm, steady, dependable. (Especially next to McCain.) After each debate, the numbers of people saying Obama showed the right leadership qualities rose, and rose into the comfort zones. It's a self-help candidacy - if the electorate can conceive it, Obama can achieve it.
At the same time, McCain's wrecked his own brand. He went into this with people really believing he was a different kind of Republican. I tend to think his greatest asset was that the Republican base didn't like him. But then he appointed all these ex-Bushies to run his campaign, he's spent too much time pandering to the core that elected Bush (and given his voting record, the reality never quite matched up to the hype anyway). And he's spent the last few weeks giving the impression that if people don't start voting for him soon, someone's going to be very sorry.
On an unrelated, and deeply unhelpful note (as far as ending the culture wars is concerned), the Republican anti-elite base reminds me of (whitefonted for current season House) that bezoar they gave Breckin Meyer in episode 3. It's impacted, indigestible, unshiftable and whenever you poke it, it starts spewing half-digested toxins. Or maybe I just hate the real America.