No one likes to feel like they are "wrong." When we hear something negative about a Democrat or liberal leader that we otherwise respect and support, we want to believe that there is a reasonable explanation for their misdeeds. If an excuse is only semi-reasonable sometimes we rely on relatively weak defenses in order to avoid recognizing the flaws in our leaders -- "At least Clinton did this." "So and so is not as bad as Bush, etc."
Of course we are all familiar with our right-wing friends' version of this across a host of issues. Sometimes these are trivial. Sometimes they are important. Sometimes they are dangerously powerful.
Case in point, the question of Bush failure in the case of 9/11 and the Right's strenuous and tortuous efforts to convince themselves that Bush is competent and that Clinton failed America.
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