There's a tendency in politics to mistake personal animosity for ideological animosity.
Consider Bill Clinton. His staggering dishonesty, tackiness and scorn
for the rule of law aroused a lot of anger from the right. But he wasn't
really that left-wing.
Oh, he was certainly more liberal
in his heart than he let on, but he also worked from the assumption that
this was a center-right country, and that limited what he could get
away with.
Clinton ran for president the first time by
"triangulating" against the base of his own party. He took time off from
the campaign to oversee the execution of Ricky Ray Rector, a man so
mentally disabled, when he left for the electric chair, he told the
guards that he was saving the pecan pie from his last meal "for later."
Clinton signed welfare reform (reluctantly), the Defense of Marriage Act
(less reluctantly), helped to balance the budget, and proclaimed that
"the era of big government is over."
And yet, many conservatives insisted he was a no-good hippy left-winger.
George W. Bush ran on a platform of "compassionate conservatism." Once
elected, his first order of business was to work with Ted Kennedy on
education. He passed the biggest expansion of entitlements in this
country since the Great Society (Medicare Part D), increased the federal
workforce and increased federal spending per household.
And yet, during his presidency -- even before 9/11 -- he was routinely called a heartless right-winger.