From where I'm sitting, somewhere in the middle, it's not really that strange at all. Americans on the right have, and have had a tendency to view all Democrats as extremists. For them, extremists and Democrats are one in the same.

For most people, here and abroad, that's how they'll view the Republicans from this campaign on out, and for who knows how many years. Extremists have completely hijacked the GOP and the most unfortunate thing is how many of these people are racists.