Quote:
Originally Posted by innerSpaceman
Au Contraire, tons of Independents vote for McCain. If Hillary is the opposing candidate, he stands a decent chance. If it's Obama, who also gets those same Independents, McCain would be toast.
|
Of course we're all just armchair quarterbacking but I disagree with this. To me, the benefit he gains from holding the moderate-right and independent votes (though I think either Clinton or Obama will likely do much better with true independents than McCain would, especially once the primaries are over and the Democrats stop talking about how moderate he is and begin treating him like a strong conservative) is more than offset by the depressing effect he'll have on turnout by the core of the Republican party.
When faced with the choice of a liberal under the label "Democrat" or a perceived liberal under the label "Republican" I think a lot of ideological Republicans are going to sit it out because at least with the Democrat the structures of your own party won't be hampering resistance to the policies.
But who knows, I was shocked by how strongly Clinton kept California since I have not seen a single visual sign of support for her but Obama is everywhere (though I am in one of the few counties that went for Obama instead of her).