Republicans and conservatives must be asking themselves - we're throwing everything against the wall, all the old tried and true stuff that has worked many times before, and yet this time, it isn't sticking. We're calling him a socialist and soft on America's enemies, we're hitting the taxes thing as hard as ever, we're dropping subtle but not too obvious racial hints in certain parts of the country. None of it is really taking. Why?
Of course the economy is the main answer. But I think there's a lot more to it than that. Those attacks have often worked in the past because they persuaded swing voters. In other words, when thinking about questions like this, you always have to divide the country into threes, because there are three main and easily distinguishable groups of voters. Loyal Republicans, who are around 45%. Loyal Democrats, also around 45%. And the 10% in the middle who go either way.
I have to disagree on this one. In this election we might witness a broad coalition in the making. The reason is this:
Update: Harold Myerson of the Washington Post makes the same argument today.
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