Negativism. Yessir, any regular listener of Rush Limbaugh can tell you that Republicans can't stand folks what are just agin' everything. Democrats are aways running down the president. Running down the generals. Running down the need for an all-powerful, unregulated, unquestioned, omnipresent government that's the only thing protecting our personal freedom!

True enough, Bush ran four times as many negative ads as Kerry, but just look at him grin! And look at his plans for Iraq! Tell me that boy's not an optimist.

So what positive, upbeat, exciting ideas do the smilin' Republicans have for election 2008? Just one. They positively hate Hillary Clinton.

More than the war on terror, more than tax cuts and traditional values, stopping Hillary is the most effective means of energizing the GOP right now. Not even the evils of abortion, gay marriage and illegal immigration can whip up the same frenzy as a mention of the woman who was once first lady.

Don't worry. I'm sure that all the same media folks who jumped out to talk about how there was nothing to the Kerry campaign but being anti-Bush will Rush to attack the Republicans.

Why are the Republican's targeting Hillaryphobia as the central theme of their fundraisers? Because the second thing on their hate parade is their own candidates.

If Thompson so far has left something to be desired, the other candidates in the GOP field have also fallen short of the glory — and they continue to do so. Putative frontrunner Rudy Giuliani is the most obvious apostate. His past approval of abortion rights, same-sex unions and gun control put him at odds with the party's most committed activists.

But much of the movement right remains just as suspicious of John McCain and remarkably uneasy with Mitt Romney, the latter in part because he is a Mormon.

...

So Christian conservatives salute and move on, still searching for a winner. Sooner or later, they will have to pick a horse or agree to sit this one out. The same is true for the party in general.

What do Republicans really hate about Hillary? The fact that she, like every other candidate the Democrats might field, beats the living snot out of their sorry choices.

(Via Daily Kos.)