[WS:] Read the paragraph that you just quoted. I said that
> They do not need mobilize huge masses that way -
> only enough people to get 50% + 1 vote.
In other words, there is a "natural" constitunecy of the Repug party, may be a third of the electorate, that will vote Repug out of their economic interests (lower taxes, deregulation, etc.) That, however, is not enough to obtain 50% +1 vote needed to win. The difference must come from that segment of the population that does not benefit from the Repug agendda, or may be even harmed by it. This, however, requires manipulation, fear-mongering, etc. and the Repugs have become very skilled at bamboozling enough people to make up that difference, albeit barely. Progressives/liberals do not have much of a chance here, unless they are deploying the same tactics as the Repugs do, in which case its amounts to putting a different lipstick on a reactionary populist pig.
So while the most people were not swayed by apPalling appeal - the chances are that enough of them may be swayed to make up the difference and give the Repugs 50% + 1 vote. Or putting it differently, apPalling may give them enough of an excuse to act out thier racist prejudices (not voting for a Black candidate) while appearing populist rather than racist. They may say with a straight face, "oh, I can really identify with that apPalling woman." instead of admitting "I'd never vote for a n-word." I fully agree with Charles Brown who argued that this election is a referendum on race relations, but I also think that the Repugs try to cover that up by creating the excuse of the apPalling appeal (which in reality is very unappealing imho, if Clinton acted like her she would be tarred and feathered.)
I sincerely hope that apPalling appeal will be insuffcient to tip the scales in the Repug favor in November, but I am not so sure. Polls may be misleading due to the Bradley effect. But if I am wrong (as I hopelessly hope I will be,) I will be first to say mea culpa on this forum. Be prepared for the worst, and may be you will have a pleasant surprise at the end.
Wojtek
--------------------------------------------------------------- "When a candidate for public office faces the voters he does not face men of sense; he faces a mob of men whose chief distinguishing mark is the fact that they are quite incapable of weighing ideas, or even of comprehending any save the most elemental — men whose whole thinking is done in terms of emotion, and whose dominant emotion is dread of what they cannot understand. So confronted, the candidate must either bark with the pack or be lost. [...] All the odds are on the man who is, intrinsically, the most devious and mediocre — the man who can most adeptly disperse the notion that his mind is a virtual vacuum. The Presidency tends, year by year, to go to such men." - HL Mencken ----------------------------------------------------------------