Democrats are well aware of the fact that Bill Maher’s monologues are frequently more insightful than most MSM commentary. Maher outdid himself recently with a rant that actually captured the essence of the Republican strategy for 2012 in a way that none of the major commentators have equaled.

“You know, Republicans have created this completely fictional president. His name is Barack X. And he’s an Islamo-socialist revolutionary who is coming for your guns, raising your taxes, slashing the military, apologizing to other countries, and taking his cues from Europe, or worse yet, Saul Alinsky!
[The fact is that]….The Republicans hatred of Obama is based on a paranoid feeling about what he might do, what he might be thinking, what he secretly wants to change.”
…And this is how politics has changed. You used to have to run against an actual candidate. But, now, you just recreate him inside the bubble and run against your new fictional candidate…

This isn’t satire; it’s an entirely serious analysis of a core Republican strategy.
And there’s really nothing funny about it.