They feel they have a much better chance of beating Hillary than Obama. The only tactics they have been able to use to win have been fear, intimidation, cheating and outright lies, and they see that Hillary has used many of the same tactics during the primaries. They know how to fight fire with fire. What they haven't figured out is how to beat someone who refuses to play their transparently cynical game. Hillary couldn't beat Obama using repub tactics, so why would repubs be any more successful? In fact, they will be beated even more badly, because repubs are even reviled by their own party, as evidenced in the recent special elections.