Tempest in a teapot

[Undercurrent]

Clinton, Obama Conflict Trumped Up By RNC
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/08/15/clinton-obama-conflict-ma_n_119217.html

Over the past few weeks, the Republican National Committee has made it a point of pride to send out memos portraying a great fissure between the respective camps of Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.

Last Thursday, for instance, saw an email with the subject line "The Healing Process Was Far From Over." Earlier the party blasted out stories showing Clinton supporters demanding a vote at the Democratic Convention. Then, when that vote was granted on Thursday, the RNC sent out a clip from Michael Goodwin of the New York Daily News, titled "Barack Obama blinks in Hillary face-off."

It's enough to give the impression (certainly, it's designed to give the impression) that chaos is ripping apart the Democratic Party, leading waves of Clinton backers to the precipice of defecting to John McCain.

It is almost completely untrue. In actuality, as Marc Ambinder noted on Friday and as several Clinton confidantes have told the Huffington Post, the two Democrats are far closer towards political unity than imagined when their primary fight ended.

"This is all a tempest in a teapot driven by a whole lot of media sources and the RNC looking to make trouble," said Mike Berman, a longtime Democratic hand and friend of Bill and Hillary Clinton.

Moreover, Thursday's announcement that Clinton would get a roll call vote at the convention -- in the process placating her supporters and providing her with the chance to state her support for Obama -- is seen even by the most hardened Clinton fanatics as an important step towards reconciliation.

"I was on record saying I didn't think this was a good idea, because I was worried about the PUMA supporters, people who are indifferent to a McCain presidency and are only driven by anger, which is not to criticize them, that is a genuine emotion," Lanny Davis, one of Clinton's more vocal supporters, told the Huffington Post. "That is reality and I thought that giving her a roll call vote would be destructive and counterproductive at the convention, because it is impossible to control the way the media would cover it. The most vocal Obama critics would be surround by 50 television cameras and be given their 50 seconds of fame."

It turned out, Davis went on, "that I had less faith than my candidate and Sen. Obama... The compromise they have just announced pulls off the exact solution that allows people to cast their votes and allows people like me to separate ourselves from the five percent of folks who weren't going to support Obama no matter what."

more... http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/08/15/clinton-obama-conflict-ma_n_119217.html

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

1. Yup, and sometimes half the RNC seems to be right here

[Captain Hilts]

2. Idiots here still believe the @#*! that MoDowd hands out.

Hell, Bob Herbert is STILL saying the Clinton admin "vandalized" the White House, when that just isn't true.