You can only rev your base up enough to vote once

What's the point in going to the extreme end of your base over and over, while losing the undecideds, independents and any crossover Dems?

I mean, really? If you rev up your base enough to vote, and you're doing public financing anyway, every time you go back to the well, you're losing votes. And its not just McCain that doesn't seem to understand the message.

The deluge of money to Tinklenberg in the MN house race, and the swing in the NC senate race from Dole to Hagan (Dole was ahead until she started attacking Hagan over actually meeting with atheists) seem to indicate that sufficiently extreme reactions will motivate people to support your opponent much more than it helps you.

So right wingnuts, here's the lowdown: once you convince your base to actually go out and vote for you, there's little point in going further - if you get them three times as worked up, they don't get to vote for you three times. They just get out the white hoods and the burning crosses. And then the decent, ordinary people, a whole heaping lot of them, suddenly start finding a few bucks for the other guy...

What's up with that? Has the right wing lost the ability to count to one?