[summer]

BTW, I really meant to say this: More voters will NOT be voting Dem for a long time to come.

Because I don't know if I believe all the disaffected voters will go GOP. I happen to believe that 3rd parties will become stronger in the years to come, though "stronger" may not mean much in election results on a state or national scale. But, I think the Dem Party has wounds that are self-inflicted that they will never address. And, some voters will continue to be turned off for a long time, especially women.

[petuniasevan]

That's true enough; some of them "protest" by voting Green or Libertarian, depending on worldview.
It does have the effect of fragmenting the Dems' power base.
The Dems' responses of hysterical rants and hyperbolic accusations/mudslinging are backfiring; some people have wised up.

[LS]

Don't buy it summer. The ONLY time we've seen large numbers of "dissatisfied" voters was in 1992, and that only because of Ross Perot and his personality. Yes, if a wierd personality comes out of the woodwork, and, like Perot, insulates himself from press inspection for most of the campaign, he can get 10% of the vote.

But if you think the Libertarians or the Greenies are going to get 10% of the vote, it ain't gonna happen. This is a two-party system. The only times in post-Civil War American history where a third-party candidate (1912, 1992) has had an impact, it arguably elected the LEAST desirable of ALL the candidate (Wilson, Clinton).