Maybe not "going away", but the GOP talking heads are already nearly unanimous in its opinion that moral extremism has flipped from an asset to a liability.
Yeah, they were four years ago, too.
Party leaders acknowleding a problem and primary voters acknowledging a problem are very different things. Especially if the leaders change their tune every two years depending on whether the crazies are winning or losing elections.
Adding: Sane people may know that George Allen is not going to win an election because most people don't like racists. And yet, here we are again.
Democratic primary voters have the same problem, of course -- remember that their master strategy for recalling Scott Walker was to nominate the same fucking guy he'd already beaten once.
I've noted before that primaries are supposed to be an exercise in minmax. And as with drawing conclusions from polls, sample size is probably the most important factor. On a national level, primary voters ARE pretty damn good at picking the nominee who best balances their own pet agendas with general electability -- Romney may have lost the general, but he WAS the Republicans' best shot. So was McCain, so was Bush, so was Dole, and so on; on the flipside, so were Obama and Clinton, and Kerry and Gore were at least PERCEIVED that way even if I'm not inclined to agree.
I think people voting in presidential primaries are going to look at guys like Akin and Mourdock and cringe at the idea of nominating anyone that extreme.
But I also think people voting in congressional primaries are going to look at Romney and cringe at the idea of nominating anyone so lacking in conviction.
Large groups will correct to the center (or whatever's perceived as such); smaller groups are likelier to produce outliers.
Speaking of which -- my district is apparently STILL too close to call.