There is perhaps no one more hated by conservatives than Hillary Clinton -- but it's not an unpleasant kind of hate. Hating Hillary Clinton, as well as her husband Bill, is more like a form of political recreation. It's kind of like golf: you don't really have anything personal against the ball, but smacking it across the field still feels really good.
Conservatives may dread the thought of a Hillary presidency, but deep down inside, they know that a second Clinton presidency would mean a ridiculous amount of fun. The awesome jokes. The legitimate talk-radio rants. Lurid stories of White House scandal and power-grabbing you can finally feel good about. Just like the '90s, only with more YouTube, and less pets.com.
It's not as if Republicans are that worried about Hillary becoming president anyways. Things may be looking down for the GOP, but if any Democrat can lose in November, it's Hillary. Polarizing. Unappealing. Mired in the past. Hillary Clinton is a familiar target, and for over a year, Republican strategists have been looking forward to the prospect of shooting her down in the fall.
But for a while, it looked like Barack Obama would spoil the fun. As Hillary faded from the lead, and the possibility of Obama's nomination began to loom over the political landscape, Republicans were forced to come to two sad realizations:
1. The general election might be incredibly hard to win.
2. Obama isn't that fun to hate.
Or so it seemed. Due to his status as a relatively new player in Washington, Barack Obama was an unknown quantity. All anyone knew about him was that he looked -- as Joe Biden stated -- "bright, clean, and articulate". Oh, and really liberal. Unfortunately, a clean liberal is kind of hard to vilify. There was, of course, the issue of his suspicious middle name (Hussein -- like the Iraq guy!), and a baseless rumor about his secret adherence to Islam, but as far as tangible character flaws, things were pretty slim pickins'.
Luckily for the GOP, it turns out that Obama is less than a political saint. The first chink in Obama's armor appeared with the re-emergence of a story about the candidate's questionable relationship with indicted slum-lord Tony Rezko. It wasn't enough to start a mass exodus from the Obama camp, or even significantly dent his standing with the general public, but it was solid evidence that Barack Obama was just as flawed as the next guy.
Obama's kind-of-scary wife provided more red meat for Barack's growing crowd of detractors. Specifically, she broke the first and greatest commandment of the American religion: be really proud of thy country, all the time. Everyone involved in politics says things that are twisted around by their opponents for political gain, but Michelle Obama's comments didn't leave her much wiggle room. Essentially, she said that during her husband's campaign, she began feeling proud of her country for the first time in her adult life, with the obvious implication being that she's been ashamed of her country for the last 25 years. And this wasn't exactly an isolated incident: a lengthy profile in the New Yorker painted a detailed portrait of Michelle as an aspiring first lady with more than a few negative things to say about her country.
Mrs. Obama's comments sparked the flames of doubt about her husband's patriotism -- but his pastor's comments fanned the flames into a bona-fide firestorm.
Maybe the comments were taken out of context. Maybe Jeremiah Wright is actually a sweet old man who loves children and puppies. But let's face it: the phrase "God damn America" probably won't be showing up etched on folksy, country-store souvenirs anytime soon. The sheer vitriol of Pastor Wright's words shocked people. It just didn't add up that Mr. Nice Guy would choose to attend a church run by Rev. Nut Case. People wanted answers. Obama, with his typically persuasive rhetoric, delivered them -- sort of. Obama's I'm-not-my-pastor's-keeper speech was good, or at least, good enough for Democratic primary voters. Things could be a little different in the general election.
After the Rev. Wright controversy broke out, Republicans were overjoyed. They finally had the ammunition they needed to deflate Obama's Mr. Smith-like image. It was the kind of stuff that could really ruffle the feathers of the GOP's center-right, common sense coalition, and hopefully prevent a wide-scale desertion of the party in November. Who could ask for more?
Nobody asked for more. But Obama was kind enough to give it anyways. Speaking in San Francisco, Barack Obama made a few remarks about small-town voters in Pennsylvania. Remarks that seemed less than flattering. In Barack's estimation, small-town voters have become bitter because of the floundering economy. Due to this high level of bitterness, "they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations." Naturally, the media -- along with Hillary and McCain -- raised the expected amount of ruckus, and Obama gave his expected response. Apparently, when Obama said that people cling to religion and guns, he meant it in a "I will cling to the old rugged cross" sort of way, not in a demeaning sense. I guess he also meant that small-town voters cling to "antipathy to people who aren't like them" in a positive way as well.
Obama is no longer the spotless paragon of virtue he was once thought to be. Some polls even show that a considerable percentage of Democrats will desert the party if he gets the nomination. An invincible candidate? Think again. He's made mistakes in the past, and will continue to do so in the future. And you can count on John McCain to exploit them in the general election.
Even better, conservatives finally have another Democrat they can feel good about despising. His elitist comments about small-town voters, paired with his America-dissing wife, and America-cursing ex-pastor, are the perfect ingredients for a lovin' spoonful of constant talk-radio/blog furor. Heck yes.
