Take the time to read this piece by Michael Rubens, a former producer for The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. It may take a while if you make side trips to watch some of the Daily Show clips to which he links.
Basically, Rubens had this job that required him to press flesh with people whose politics he'd despised…but an amazing part of the time, he found himself not loathing the person but liking and/or feeling sorry for them. You can decide for yourself if this is a sentiment more likely to occur among Liberals…or folks of any stripe in Mr. Rubens' position…or even if he's telling the truth.
I've had very few opportunities to meet someone in the political arena I'd disliked from afar. One was William Calley. He seemed at first like a nice, ordinary guy…until you remembered that he was a convicted war criminal who'd murdered Vietnamese civilians.
Another was the (recently) late Charles Colson, who in a pre-Watergate era had been one of Richard Nixon's more arrogant hatchetmen. By the time I met him, Colson had "found God" and while I didn't like or dislike the man I met, I did think that what he'd found in God was, quite consciously, a way to rehabilitate his name and make money exploiting the religious market.
I would probably enjoy meeting and liking someone famous whose politics I had disliked from afar. But I didn't like Mr. Colson and as for Mr. Calley…well, I can overlook a lot in another human being but slaughtering women and children? Or even men for that matter? That's kinda rough to set aside.