Or of Sarah Palin! Or of Michelle Backmann! Or of Rick Santorum!
Well, yes and no. Mostly, they’re huge figures of fun to liberals, I think. (I’m not really one of them, but I think I understand them well, and can speak for them, though I’ll need to take three giant steps to my right to become one of them.) If the Pubbies were to nominate a gigantic nutbag with zero gravitas and fewer credentials, most libs would think it a gift, electorally speaking. Against almost any of these, Obama would start off with a clear advantage and then build on that as the election progressed, making 2008 look like a tense, closely contested election whose outcome was always in doubt.
But the “No” part divides into two smaller parts: nominating a nutbag has two downsides, both of which are VERY unlikely but VERY scary to liberals. Said nutbag might, just might, turn into a surprisingly viable candidate, for a variety of unforeseeable reasons, such as they might drop the nutbag image they’ve spent a lifetime building, and be able to talk sound fiscal or foreign policies for the first time in their lives (this one is on of the order of their being able to sprout an extra head, but it’s possible, I guess) or Obama might have a heart attack around the end of October and be in the ICU on Election Day, or have some big sex scandal, or be revealed to be Kenyan-born all along–IOW, the Republicans could win with a heifer as their candidate, and said nutbag profits from being in the right place at the right time. This is scary.
And so of course is the other smaller part: if that happens, then we have 4 years with President Nutbag actually in office, which would be a major bummer, and might just toss this entire culture into the dustbin of history. The point is that both of these scaenarios, which are basically two stages of the same scenario (the first a scary electoral season, the second a scarier administration), are considered EXTREMELY unlikely, and most liberals would probably opt FOR it rather than choosing a moderate opponent (like Romney, who’s scary enough, thank you, or Huntsman) with a much more realistic chance of defeating Obama without Providential help, but a less scary administration to follow.
What I’m claiming is that, yes, there is a tiny element of real fear of each of these nutbag candidates, but it’s sorta like a fear of a comet crashing into the planet–it’s very unlikely to happen, but if it happens, it’s going to be very bad.