I have someexperience in Psychologial Operations and I can attest to the fact that cognitive dissonance (CD) can cut both ways. Many times when you introduce CD to the infromation stream you get a perverse reaction and reinforce a belief or attitude instead of undermining it. The hearer doubles down to protect themselves.
I think that’s what happpend when McCain chose Palin. It was clear from the first that Palin had more experience then Obama. That’s why the Obama campaign did everything they could to smear her. The smears were effective because soft Obama supports wanted to believe. I think that will remain the case until they no longer can deny that his policies are having a measurable adverse effect on their wallets. When Obama’s support collapses it will collapse in a big way. He will go from 60% approval to 30% virtually over night.
