How much do the Akins, O'Donnells, Mourdochs, Angles rub off on voters?

[Stranger in a strange land]

Ideological purity is the problem.  Republicans need to realize that half a loaf is better than no bread.

The problem isn't even that the Republican base demands purity on every issue. It's that they demand extremism on every issue, and even worse, they can't even fathom the possibility that this might be turning off swing voters or motivating Democrats to turn out.