Where Oh Where Are the McCain Haters?

I’m not exactly sure if it has any relevance to Sean Wilentz’s article in TNR or not but I have noticed that the passion that fueled the virulent hatred against Hillary Clinton in comments across the blogosphere just does not transfer to John McCain. Those who were the most vociferous about accusing her of racism, of running a "Southern Strategy," of gaming the system, of conducting a scurrilous smear-driven campaign, who would argue until the death that she must be defeated lest she continue the war forever, just do not get that worked up about John McCain appearing on stage with religious wack-job racists or threatening to bomb Iran and stay in Iraq for 100 years. Every word uttered by the Clinton campaign would propel a hundred outraged "did you see this?" emails into my inbox. John McCain? Not so much.

Case in point. I put up a post about Hillary Clinton accepting a Fox debate over at the Huffington Post. It got 265 irate comments. I put up one about McCain breaking campaign finance law while accusing Obama of doing so, and got — 10. (And I should say that in the grand scheme of things, Clinton accepting a Fox debate is just not that important. On the other hand, John McCain is breaking a law that calls for him to virtually shut his campaign down now and stop traveling until September, so it’s hard to see how the stakes could be higher.)

I genuinely thought that the impulse to vilify Clinton and defend Obama was just because people really, really liked him. I have to say, now I’m not so certain.

Related posts:

1. Frank Rich: McCain Was Wrong On Everything. CNN Treats Him As Sage
2. McCain Rediscovers His Passion for Screwing Us with Bad Telecom Policy
3. Get a Grip, Wingnuts: John McCain Obsessively Quotes Mao Zedong
4. McCain is a Clunker, Can I Trade Him in?
5. Did Palin Misrepresent Her Creationist Beliefs to Get on the McCain Ticket?