Why did Republicans hate Bill Clinton so much?

[MarkD]

One of the biggest political controversies of 1993 was gays in the military, and Bill Clinton did not handle that issue very well. First, he campaigned in 1993 as if he was going to be a political moderate, but when news broke that Clinton had made a campaign promise during the 1992 campaign, to gay activists that he will lift the ban on gays in the military. That made him look as if he were going to be much more liberal than his moderate image. The promise he made to lift the ban was not popular with the military itself, nor with Republicans or conservative Democrats. When it became obvious the military was not going to accept openly gay service people, and that Congress had conservative majorities who were supporting the military, Clinton reneged on his promise and accepted the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy instead. Reneging on his campaign promise made him seem wishy-washy. The whole scenario was a large part of what made him unpopular to the Republicans.