Greenwald with an astute observation that needs to be remembered:
There’s a prevailing sense that Obama is not as offensive to the right-wing GOP faction as other Democratic and liberal candidates in the past have been, or that he’s less “divisive” among them than Hillary. And that’s true: for now, while he tries to take down the individual who has long provoked the most intense hatred — literally — among the Right. But anyone who doesn’t think that that’s all going to change instantaneously if Obama is the nominee hasn’t been watching how this faction operates over the last 20 years. Hatred is their fuel. Just look at the bottomless personal animus they managed to generate over an anemic, mundane, inoffensive figure like John Kerry. At their Convention, they waved signs with band-aids mocking his purple hearts while cheering on two combat-avoiders.
If Obama wins the nomination for the Democrats, all of that will change, and it will change overnight. We will be regaled with long tales of madrassas, Obama’s first name will become Hussein, and everyone’s pets will be running around frothing from all the dog whistles. Obama is getting a free ride at the moment because of the intense, nutty, and 15 year old hate for the Clagina (in all honesty, I was a hater up until a few years ago when I realized cold and calculating competence is better than willful dishonesty and feckless incompetence). But if and when the queen is vanquished, all that venom will need a target, and that target will be Obama.
*** Update ***
I should probably note that the inevitable shift from full-on Clinton hatred to reverse Obamania by our right-wing friends could, quite possibly, be the least interesting political jujitzu they engage in this election year.
No, folks. The most interesting flip-flop of this election cycle could come if Huckabee actually wins the nomination. Then we will get the treat of watching all the establishment right-wingers, who have spent the last few months calling Huckabee a religious nutjob and the like, contort 180 degrees and attack the left-wing for pointing out that he is… a religious nutjob. Which he is.
If you need a preview of this, read the Sundries Shack, where itinerant fool Jimmie has spent the past few years taking great offense whenever someone points out the unhealthy fusion of right-wing politics and religion, but who has been less a fan of said fusion since the Huckaboom.
