I refer you to the Kennedy assassination. Kennedy was having an affair with a communist spy. This was at a time when our country really feared the communists. The press overlooked Kennedy’s other affairs, but with a communist spy? That was getting ready to explode all over the media. Kennedy goes to Texas, home of LBJ, and gets assassinated. His assassin somehow manages to be murdered on tv by a man dying of cancer. LBJ becomes President. Kennedy goes from being completely dishonored and costing the Democrats elections for decades to being a hero. If it gets bad enough, the Democrat leadership and the old media will do whatever they have to do to protect the Democrat party.
From a pure Machiavellian standpoint, the Rats offing Obama would serve so many purposes for them. He would make the perfect “martyr.”