This is NOT an Obama smear. It is an anti-Republican smear. It was going to be a comment in a recent "Republicans Like Obama, Too" diary, but I just had too much to say. And its all opinion. Deal.
Republicans hate Hillary with a passion because their leaders have told them to hate the Clintons for 16 years. This hate is built upon years of lies, innuendo, scape-goating, cheap shots, misrepresentation, bigotry (Bill was the first "first black President" since Harding), and religious intolerance.
The Republican noise machine has not yet turned its guns on Obama.
They have fired a few warning shots (the madrassa lie, the black separatist church lie, "accidentally" mispronouncing his name), but what has come before will pale in comparison to what will follow when (if?) he wins the nomination.
For now Obama has partial cover: both by the disarray choosing a Republican nominee, and by that ingrained fear of Hillary. This allows Republicans a temporary window to see Obama as he really is. And they like him. For now.
Their leaders haven’t told them this is wrong yet.
But when they finally choose a nominee, their pundits will no longer be distracted. When we choose a nominee, they will no longer be playing the "anyone but Hillary" game.
Then the big guns will come out. Anyone who listens to talk radio, watches Faux News, watches network news, reads a paper, has an email address, or even breathes will be faced with an avalanche of bile directed at Obama. It will be the same crap that convinced people to hate Bill and Hillary in the first place, and it will come from the same people. It's going to be dirty and ugly no matter who we choose, and the right is growing more desperate every year.
I know it won’t work on the left. Our ideologues who think "anyone is better than (fill in the blank)" have been shown the error of their ways by eight years of Bush. Some things are worse than the worst Democrat.
I don’t think it will work for the middle. Fence-sitters who thought that one politician is pretty much just like the next have seen the light after Bush. Few independents are clamoring for four more years of this.
But I just don’t expect a whole lot of new friends on the right.
BTW – First-time diary. Thanks for letting me vent.