A politician as a cult leader is worrisome to me. As well as cheering for your side like we do for our favorite sports team - ALWAYS. It is actually good, that McCain was critiqued by conservative base a lot. Its just possible that it made him a better candidate.
I agree. If the base had just fallen in line (Where else are they going to go, Obama?), I don't think he would have tapped one of ours (Palin) in his VP selection. We refused pleas for funds, weren't volunteering to help his campaign & many of us were talking about sitting out this election cycle. I think he realized that going for all of the votes from the mushy middle weren't gonna get the job done. Lo & behold, he needed the GOP base.
We needed a reason to vote for his ticket & he gave us one.