Republicans want the other man out and their man in. This is to be expected. Fifty years of cold war and hollywood movies have conditioned Americans to believe the communist is evil and spells the end of the world. The average American does not know the difference between socialism and communism. Convince him Obama is socialist and its a short step to say he is a commie and it is your patriotic duuty to fight him.
What bothers me is the behind the scenes work here. I see a republican party campaign HQ with highly paid advisors coming up with dirty tricks on how to influence public opion. One says - lets suggest he is not American born and spread some BS about his birth certificate. Nah says another - lets imply he is a commie.
This is wrong. It does not matter what he is, what matters is his policies and perrformance. You don't like his healthcare reforms, fine bash him on that by all means but don't bash him because of what church his mom went to or what books he read as a student.