[cacophony]

you could argue that rally attendees represent a small portion of the total republican voter base. and if the bigoted attendees make up only a portion of that portion, you do end up with a "fringe element" responsible for the offensiveness.

we have to be careful not to do the same thing that happened when hillary didn't get the nomination. it was easy to look at the hillary rallies and say, "wow a lot of women are angry and will vote for mccain if she doesn't get the nod." but in reality that very visible, very vocal group turned out to be an itty bitty minority and most of her supporters won't defect after all.

just because these people are visible and vocal, we can't automatically decide they represent the whole.