This Tom Bevan post has a noteworthy take on the recent GOP debate in Orlando. Bevan, like many observers, was struck by the degree to which the mere mention of Hillary Clinton electrified the Republican debate audience. Writes Bevan:
The visceral reaction Hillary generates is not unique to Florida Republicans. Indeed, the anger and fear she arouses in most Republicans at the thought of her winning the White House is clearly the force that is sustaining the strength of Rudy Giuliani's candidacy and helping him defy the traditional laws of political gravity in the GOP nominating process that a great many pundits believed would have brought him down to earth by now.
Meanwhile, Bevan notes, the Democratic left's hatred of the "right-wing smear machine" is propelling them to support the one candidate who, in their view, would be able to withstand a frontal attack from said machine. That candidate is ... Clinton. "In short," Bevan concludes, "there appears to be a centrifugal force at work that is pushing the parties toward all-out political war, with Rudy and Hillary currently being the most favored warriors on each respective side." If those two candidates were to win their respective party's nomination, the general election probably would be one of the nastiest - and in all likelihood, one of the most entertaining - in American political history. Now, one suspects that what Bevan writes is true of committed partisans. But what about, you know, actual voters? After eight years of Bush and Bush-hatred, a typical voter may want to cool the temperature in Washington. Which is to say: Giuliani and Clinton's well-deserved reputation for political toughness may be a double-edged sword. This latter interpretation assumes, of course, that people want the age of polarity to come to an end.