... or so now say the people who foisted that couple on us throughout the 1990s. The Clintons are unethical? The Clintons are "divisive" and use dirty tricks? The Clintons will say anything to get into office! No! Really? Why did it take a decade for y'all to realize this?

(Of course, Obama will too -- he speaks as if he's been a centrist, but his actual voting record implies it's merely a head-fake -- but he's at least a bit classier about it; and he's the media's golden boy of the moment, so he is seldom confronted with tough questions, and the attacks of his supporters and affiliates -- like those linked above -- are not being associated with him.)

I see two narratives here being used in the attacks against Hillary. The first is that everything she does is "Republican". Did Wesley Clark run on his military service? Did John Kerry claim that Bush went AWOL and was unfit for command? Did Kerry likewise employ a martial theme at his nomination? That wasn't a "Republican" tactic in 2004, but when Hillary questions Obama's foreign policy or C-in-C bona fides, suddenly, she's gone over to the dark side, treading where no Democrat would ever go. How morally facile -- not to mention forgetful.

By far, my favorite comments noted there come from John Cole, who was once a Republican and now supports Obama. Note the gyrations he admits he put himself through:

I am well aware that I am beyond the point where I can discuss Hillary rationally, but I really can not stress enough how much I have grown to hate her. I really, really tried to give her a chance. I was a Clinton hater through the 90’s, although after she was elected to the Senate and was a non-factor in my daily life, much of that hatred waned (and it did not hurt Hillary that the disastrous Bush administration helped me to re-evaluate the Clinton Presidency)....

And I came to the Democratic party prepared to vote for her. When I left the GOP and registered as a Democrat, Hillary was the inevitable nominee. It was the number one question I was asked- “Are you going to vote for Hillary?” I always said yes.

When people say that this is nothing more than my old Clinton hatred bubbling up, and this is nothing more than my pathologies rising up, there is something to it. But I really did try to give this candidate a shot. I defended her when she was getting the shaft, I was skeptical of Obama and I mocked his supporters and thought Hillary was not getting a fair break with the media elites, and I really tried. But the past few months have shown me that while I may have a number of issues with Hillary, they are not because I was brainwashed by dips**s like Bill Kristol and Richard Mellon Scaife and the rest of the vast right-wing conspiracy who Hillary is now courting while parroting their rhetoric. I don’t like Hillary because of who she is. Hell, I spent months trying to blame everything on her advisors. But this isn’t just the putrid Mark Penn or execrable Howard Wolfson. This is just who she is.

She and her low-brow coterie of lackeys have left a trail of slime and unpaid vendor bills everywhere they have gone the past few months. They have lied, distorted, polled, and then lied some more. They attack viciously, then play the victim when punched back. There is literally NOTHING they will not do to win this nomination.... They bring out the worst in everyone around them, me included.

The author cannot discuss his political opponents rationally. Check. He hated the Clintons with an irrational hatred during the 1990s. Check. Yet he was willing to forget all that in order to oppose his bigger enemies, Republicans. Check. He was willing to blame those around her for her campaign's behavior, but wasn't willing to admit she bears responsibility, ultimately, for her staffing decisions. Check. He was willing to ignore character flaws, such as stiffing the small businesses her campaign contracted. Check. He uses obscenity frequently in his analysis, which appears to be driven mostly by emotion. Check.

In short, this seems to be a textbook example* of how to go from being a Republican to being an Obama supporter. Let your emotions drive you. Don't think about hard facts, like numbers of lives saved, or economic damage inflicted. Go with the flow, darn it.

There are a number of people who I sometimes find "on my side", but don't ultimately think they belong here. Certainly, I appreciate their vote on election day, but it's interesting to watch the shake-out, as people find their way to their true home. John Cole seems to work quite nicely as a Democrat. He's certainly got the cursing down.

(*I have another friend who has gone from supporting Republicans to Obama. He was initially driven to Republicans, he says, by his fear that the Democrats were trying to take people's money. But now he fears the "right wing" more because they're trying to take people's freedom. Never mind that many of the things he fears (Patriot Act) had bipartisan support; never mind that the media has distorted the contents of such; and never mind that controlling people's money IS the same thing as limiting their liberties. But being secular and being mainly driven by fear seems to be a combination which results in a leftward pull.)