'Schisms and Ruptures'

From Turkana at The Left Coaster.

I want to clarify something. Nobody claims that the Clintons aren't playing rough. But many are acting as if the Obama camp isn't. Both sides are, and both are responsible for the nasty tone to the campaign. But the corporate media are enamored of Obama, and they have always hated the Clintons, so they are playing the Evil Clinton angle to the hilt. The Obama camp is playing the victim. If you read the blogs, the shrill has been deafening. The Obama camp themselves are showing immeasurably more class than are many of their supporters.

Politics can be hard-hitting, and both the Clintons and Obamas know it. Obama says Wal*Mart, Clinton answers with Rezko. That's the dynamic, in a nutshell. Sometimes she'll fire first, and he'll respond, but it's dishonest to claim that either is a saint. What's more frustrating, though, is that the corporate media are again doing what they did during Bill Clinton's presidency, and many Obama supporters are playing along, giving credence to writers and narratives that in other years they'd have ridiculed. But that, too, is how this campaign is being fought.

The worst part, though, is that the media are also again focusing on the "Divided Dems" stereotype. They're ignoring the even more bitter Republican campaign. The Democratic candidates are all basically centrists, and their differences are mostly about style, tone, and personality. The Republicans not only have personal animosities, they have serious ideological differences, too. The Neocons, Theocons, and Corporate Kleptocrats have been bound together by mutual loathing of the Democrats, and by a desire to each get a bit of their way, rather than none getting any. That's changing.

With the Republican brand tanking, and the different factions having so much more to lose, they are all standing their ground with an intensity that is only going to grow. No matter the current rivalries, the Democrats will come together out of a mutual understanding that they share a mutual common interest. The Republicans are beginning to realize that they never shared a common interest, in the first place.