Your question is well founded. I’m sure there would be a lot of hypocrites on something like this.
But I can can honestly say yes, I would feel the same way if this situation happened to a President that I liked. I wouldn’t take a graphic from a state party as a serious assassination threat. There are many online games that involve doing harm to or killing poorly rendered graphical representations of Obama, Bush, and other Presidents and Presidential candidates. I doubt the secret service investigated them all and they are legal under the first amendment as is this ill-advised graphic of zombie Obama.
I’m sure there are enough real threats made against the President to occupy the secret service’s time.
Your points are well-made. However, knowing the Left like you and I do, it was foolish mistake that the VA GOP made. The Secret Service was probably made to check out this as a possible. They probably checked out the game companies too, but gamers and the GOP aren’t germaine to each other. The Democrats used this mistake to gain points against the GOP. Remember, that it isn’t whether an allegation is true or not, it is whether the people think it is true. LBJ is quoted as famously crafting a campaign by throwing out an allegation against his rival, Nixon, I think. When his staffer pointed out that it wasn’t true, Johnson replied something to like, ‘You know that and I know that, but it will be fun to watch the bastard try to deny it.’