Bill Clinton can give testimonials to William Fulbright, George Wallace and

everyone short of Hermann Goerring and hardly anyone will believe that he is

“racist” in the traditional sense (hating blacks and other minorities).

Republicans don’t get that free pass. Similarly, a Democrat making a mistake

on defense-related matters is going to be near fatal, whereas a Republican

could conceivably get through it (Gerald Ford and Soviet-dominated Europe

being a notable exception here).