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If you're naively basing your decision upon which candidate is more immune to right wing 527s and ad hominem attacks, you've forgotten the lesson of swiftboating. The swiftboaters attacked unfairly and without any basis in fact. There is no such thing as being immune from this shit--or less vulnerable to it--simply because of a candidate's personal history.
The right wing smears will be merciless, sexist if necessary or racist if necessary. They'll portray Clinton as a "crazy bitch" or Obama as a "crazy n-word." They'll attack Clinton's record and Obama's record with full intent to distort. They'll bring up Clinton's "shady" associates and Obama's "shady" associates. There'll be NO actual truth from which to depart on these attacks.
If you're interested in what form these attacks will come, you should also look beyond these pre-vetted "revelations" from the democratic primary and look at your candidate's absolute strengths. John Kerry was a war hero, so that's what they swiftboated.
The smears we've seen already are nothing compared to what's coming and will have nothing to do with reality. Those coming smears reside in the Machiavellian imaginations of the far right. I believe those imaginations are completely capable of concocting equally sinister smears for either candidate.
I'm an Obama supporter, but I'm fully aware that his ability to transcend the trash will be put to the test. I also know Clinton's history is pre-made to plug-in new smears from the Right. They've been peppering their own constituency with Clinton-bashing for years. But I don't think much of what we blog or even what our candidates or their campaigns say about each other now will be nearly as relevant later this summer when the attackers won't be concerned with standing even on the smallest particle of truth before launching their missiles. For a number of reasons I believe my candidate can emerge from that barrage as president--but he won't emerge unscathed. Nor would Clinton. I also think there are a number of other issues which hold Clinton down--but of course I would think that; I support Obama. The point is, though, that nothing we know of our candidate's personal histories or record can predict attacks that will have nothing to do with reality.
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