[ChuckF]

I think there's a difference between the wingnuts who convince themselves that the polls are wrong and that Romney is already secret President, and the Republican operatives who are overseeing voter suppression efforts in Ohio and Florida. I believe that Bush stole Ohio in 2004. McCain would have done it if he had a chance at all. Romney has a chance, and this is a critical time for the GOP: it's probably the last presidential election where the party is old and white enough to maybe plausibly put it over the top. If it doesn't win now, the party may have to try to accommodate people who are not white, and it isn't very good at that.

I can't decide which is scarier: the prospect of the Republicans succeeding, or the prospect of the GOP dividing into big-tent and fascist factions. That's already happened to some extent, but the party has at least managed to stay together and reign in the noisier fascist wing to support a mediocre candidate, if only because he is the white man in the race. What happens when that party structure breaks down, and the most hateful are no longer constrained by party elders with some connection to pragmatism and reality? It's one thing to cynically manipulate cultural issues to appeal to the basest fears of the electorate; it's another thing to actually believe in the screed. Those are the scary people.