One thing I found myself thinking about last week was how quickly lots of liberals — myself included, really — have tended to be willing to accept the notion that John Kerry was some kind of uniquely unappealing candidate for national office in terms of his personal qualities. But of course before Kerry was super-lame, there was Al Gore and he was . . . super lame. And now here I am catching up on my Corner reading and look how personally unappealing Hillary Clinton turns out to be. And Nancy Pelosi, too! It’s no surprise that conservatives try to turn every leading Democrat into not only an ideologically objectionable figure but a personally mock-worthy one as well. It is surprising how willing people are to internalize this stuff.
No matter who it is the Democrats nominate, that person is going to wind up mocked as obviously the wrong the choice; obviously just an absurd person who absurd primary voters picked over dozens of more appealing choices. Even Bill Clinton, you’ll recall, was supposed to be some kind of gross “slick willy” figure.
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