The Blog  A Base Election After All?  High turnout among
Democrats buried McCain on Election Day.  11:00 PM, Nov 11, 2008
• By ARNON A. MISHKIN Widget tooltip Single Page Print Larger
Text Smaller Text Alerts  The race between Barack Obama and John
McCain was supposed to be about winning the middle. Both
candidates embraced the theme of moving from partisan gridlock
to seeking bipartisan consensus. Obama's speeches evoked a
country that was "not blue states and red states, but more
United States." McCain focused on his record of working on both
sides of Senate aisle. In contrast to the 2004 election, in
which both parties sought to motivate their bases, this campaign
was set on the battlefield of undecided voters.  The election
results, however, record the exact opposite happening. Most
undecided voters swung to McCain, but he was buried by Obama's
ability to spur enormous turnout among the Democratic base while
McCain, in turn, was unable to bring out the Republican base.
The swing among undecided voters co