I’m not talking about ideological criticism of Obama actual policies, like here, from the left or the right, or about at least arguably dodgy (if overly hyped) stuff like his association with Tony Rezko. I’m talking about stuff utterly divorced from reason or reality, like charges that Obama is a racist or a Marxist or a crypto-Muslim, when he’s really a fairly conservative Democrat with Chicago-school economic advisors. I actually read one post on Free Republic to the effect that Obama “must be the Antichrist.” See also this Pit thread. It’s like the RW thinks Obama is the second coming of Lenin or something.
I just don’t get it. High-strung partisan rancor is only to be expected in this environment, but I don’t recall anything like this level of insane hatred or fear directed at Gore in 2000 or Kerry in 2004. Is this just because he’s black and has an Arabic-African name, or is there something deeper going on here?