Palin's Appeals to Racist Make Sense - Screw Undecideds! Rely On Heavy Turnout Of The Far Right

[Median Democrat]

I listened to an interview of Florida Governor Crist that may explain the McCain/Palin strategy. McCain will continue to try to court moderates even though this is a losing cause. However, as Florida's governor noted, the real key to victory is trying to get heavy turnout from the GOP Base by having Palin pander to the right wing with inflammatory, racist, liberal media bashing rhetoric.

Governor Crist explained that the hope is that notwithstanding all the newly registered Democrats, he believes that they will simply not show up to vote (voter fraud?), thus it is more important to rely on heavy turnout from the base, rather than place hopes on trying to capture moderates and undecideds. Also, one thing not mentioned by Crist, is that highly charged GP base may also be motiviated to engage in acts of voter intimidation such as anonymous letters that voters will be screened for arrest warrants and immigration status. Thus, McCain will go through the motions of appealing to moderates and undecideds, but the real GOP goal is to super-charge the GOP base while also suppressing votes by Democrats and independents.

Historically, the last time voter turnout exceeded 60% was in 1968. Thus, to a certain extent, simple polls do not tell the whole story. The real key will be heavy turnout, and if Palin could whip a racist minority into a frothing rage so that 100% of them vote, then the racists would be over-represented in terms of turnout.

My take is that 15 days from the election, the Obama campaign needs to switch from focusing on convincing people to vote for him, to simply convincing people who support him to actually vote.