If the 1995 propaganda war against Newt Gingrich and the congressional Republicans is any gauge, the press will leave not one stone standing on another.
The 1995 campaign, for instance, saw the invention of the "mad Republican bomber" meme (put about by Tim Robbins in the movie Arlington Road) and the coinage, by a TIME staffer, of the phrase "Clinton hater". It made Newt Gingrich the most hated and despised man on earth, going into his private life for fuel to dump on him and light up. To this day, all U.S. women hate Gingrich because they've heard the divorce-papers story (and I don't even know if it's true).
The Republicans are going to be on the receiving end of a hurricane of hatred and despite this fall.
Two big differences between 1995 and now: The Internet and McCain’s hero status. The L.A. Times tried going after McCain’s military “pension” the other day, but it looks to have sunk like a lead balloon. Neither Obama nor Hillary have any real claim to a scintilla of military, foreign policy or executive experience of any kind, and all the GOP has to do is point this out. The American public isn’t going to let a shrewish Haus Frau or an ACORN neighborhood organizer take the nuclear football and run with it. We aren’t that far gone, yet.