Republicans lack consensus, but their Democrat rivals lack content

[T_i_B]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/story/0,,2244048,00.html

The Bush coalition was not big enough to win the first election without the help of the supreme court and would not have scraped through the second election without a war. Now, in the absence of a candidate they can agree on and extenuating circumstances to push them over the edge, the various factions that helped him to power are at loggerheads. Bush has bequeathed the same legacy to his party as he has to the nation - division.

The Democrats' propensity to gloat at this cruel irony is understandable. It is also a mistake. True, while Republicans bemoan their paltry choice, turnout for Democratic primaries and caucuses has set new records and revealed rarely seen levels of enthusiasm. Judging by those taking part, the Democratic base is expanding and rejuvenating itself.

But it is no less true that the Democratic primaries have raised little in the way of political debate. Where a vigorous discussion about how to end the war, rebuild the economy or extend healthcare should be, they have instead indulged themselves in a beauty contest that is simultaneously entertaining, engaging and empty. It has been a battle of nouns - "experience" versus "change" - but not verbs. Quite what they would actually do with this experience or what they would change is not entirely clear.

The mayhem in the Republican party primaries is being driven by differences in policy; the order among Democrats has been created by an obsession with personality. Whoever wins the Republican nomination will have been tested; whoever becomes the Democratic candidate will have been crowned. The Republicans may be in desperate need of consensus; but the Democrats are in dire need of content.