The latest Newsweek features several major Republicans who can't tolerate the far-right takeover of their party. Some of them:

Charles Fried, who was Ronald Reagan's solicitor general: "I most certainly could not support Gov. Romney, who has been pandering to the extreme wing of my party from the start of his campaign."

Wick Allison, publisher of The American Conservative: "I will probably vote for Obama ... . Romney is the opposite of conservative, with a plan that is fiscally reckless and a foreign policy that is unnecessarily militant."

Douglas Kmiec, who was a Justice Department official under Reagan and the first President Bush: "I am strongly in the president's camp, even as his opposition has been doing its darnedest to overstate a few concerns about the usual subjects ... . The president was handed the worst possible economic hand, and largely, though of course not perfectly, he has met the economic challenge."

We wish more moderate Republicans would try to swing their party back to America's mainstream.

After the rousing Democratic National Convention, polls found a surge in popularity for President Obama. An ABC News/Washington Post survey reported that Obama climbed ahead of Republican Mitt Romney by 50 to 44 percent generally across the nation. In eight crucial "swing states" that may decide the Nov. 6 election, Obama fared even better, leading by 54 to 40.

However, in the most important category -- among registered voters who say they're sure to go to the polls -- it's a dead heat: 49 percent for Obama and 48 for Romney. Therefore, the 2012 national race remains too close to predict.

Two significant factors could sway the Nov. 6 outcome:

• The notorious "Citizens United" ruling by conservatives on the U.S. Supreme Court lets corporations and billionaires pour unlimited money into campaign "smear ads" -- most of them designed to taint Democrats. Brace yourself for endless TV garbage.

• Republican legislators in numerous states passed photo ID laws designed to hinder voting by low-income people, blacks, Hispanics and others less likely to have driver licenses -- groups that tend to vote Democratic. Republicans also cut back early voting in poor neighborhoods where Democratic majorities reside. The Kansas City Star commented:

"The scramble among GOP officeholders to curtail voting rights under the guise of cracking down on the almost nonexistent problem of people voting under a false identity is a shameful display of partisan thuggery."

In Pennsylvania, a Republican legislator boasted that requiring voters to show photo IDs "is gonna allow Gov. Romney to win the state of Pennsylvania." He spilled the beans.

Fortunately, federal courts are striking down these GOP attempts to obstruct the basic right of democracy. Blocking low-income folks from voting is a shabby way to win.

Slightly over seven weeks remain until showdown day. Many are sick of politics and won't bother to vote. But people who care about their nation have a duty to wade through the baloney and cast ballots. Clench your teeth and tough it out.

We hope America chooses the Democratic Party, which serves average families and the middle class -- not the extreme new version of the GOP, which favors billionaires, fundamentalists and military hawks.