Reply #18: The level of hatred is the same, but they are different kinds of hate

[LSdemocrat]

Clinton was hated on a very personal and cultural level. It was a hatred that had little to do with policy. He managed to push all of the right-wing's cultural hot buttons at once. Lawyer, intellectual, the 60's generation, highly nuanced beliefs, married to a strong, independant woman, perceived sexual infidelity (a rather hypocritical hatred for many on the right), an agent of change.

The hatred of Bush, while originally having some basis in his personal life (life of priviledge, never really working a day in his life, having the keys to the country handed to him by his father, the Republican party, and five members of the Supreme Court), has evolved into a hatred having almost entirely to due with policy and politics. Wasting of the greatest surplus ever, wasting the world's goodwill after 9/11, John Ashcroft the "Patriot" Act and the shredding of the US constitution, gutting of environmental regulations, the war in Iraq, and the list goes on and on.

Despite the differences in the type of hatred, I can't really say that one was more hated or disliked than the other.