very informative post @krnel. i liked reading it. Some questions arise:

when the crowd is large like it is during elections, how can we assume that it is an egalitarian networked group? Typically most people in this world will not do independent research and will sift through other's perceptions to make their own decision. in this case, is it possible that all that we have to do was to resonate with a few and then the group mentality would take over? If an election is close in terms of vote share then does it mean that there are more independent networked thinkers? Is the popular vote due to an egalitarian networked group or centralized group?
thanks