Obama-Clinton Truce?

I’ve talked about some of the animosity between Clinton and Obama that I’ve seen on the Daily Kos. Evidently, it isn’t limited to there. There was hostility among party leaders:

LAS VEGAS — After staying on the sidelines in the first year of the campaign, race and to a lesser extent gender have burst into the forefront of the Democratic presidential contest, thrusting Senators Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton into the middle of a sharp-edged social and political debate that transcends their candidacies.

In a tense day of exchanges by the candidates and their supporters, Mrs. Clinton suggested on Sunday that Mr. Obama’s campaign, in an effort to inject race into the contest, distorted remarks she had made about the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Mr. Obama tartly dismissed Mrs. Clinton’s suggestion, adding that “the notion that somehow this is our doing is ludicrous.”

Mr. Obama’s campaign then attacked Mrs. Clinton for failing to repudiate one of her top black supporters for “engaging in the politics of destruction” with an apparent reference to Mr. Obama’s acknowledged drug use in the past. And throughout the day, supporters of Mrs. Clinton and of Mr. Obama each accused the other of injecting race in search of political gain.

The exchanges created apprehension among many of their supporters who viewed this moment — if perhaps inevitable, given the nature of the contest — as divisive for Democrats. At the same time, it offered a portrait of a party struggling through entirely unfamiliar terrain that has been brought into relief by Mr. Obama’s victory in Iowa and Mrs. Clinton’s in New Hampshire. [...]

Mr. Obama spoke in general terms Sunday about the attacks on his candidacy on a day when Mrs. Clinton specifically challenged his record on opposing the Iraq war.

“I think they have decided to run a relentlessly negative campaign, and I don’t think anybody who’s watching would deny that,” he said. “I gather that she’s determined that instead of trying to sell herself on why she would be the best president, she’s trying to convince folks that I wouldn’t be a good one.”

Aides to both Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Obama expressed squeamishness at the direction the conversation was heading. And publicly, the campaigns spent much of the day shadow-boxing on an issue that advisers to both of them described as volatile. The issue broke through when Robert L. Johnson, the founder of Black Entertainment Television, who appeared at a rally with Mrs. Clinton in Columbia, S.C., seemed to allude to Mr. Obama’s use of cocaine as a young man. [...]

And, even more interestingly for me, there is hostility among the rank and file too:

[...]Lately, it seems that the Democratic Party is falling back into its bad habits and foolish ways. Just walk down the streets of NYC and mention the words Hillary or Obama and you find good friends screaming at each other, family members sleeping on couches, and more divisiveness than unity. It is sad — but apparently unavoidable. Just look at yesterday’s nasty exchanges and today’s New York Times headlines.

Reality: We are a nation arguably on the cusp of a third war (with Iran) and already in an economic recession (heck, even President Bush is starting to admit it). We are overdue for another domestic terrorist attack. We are disliked (if not outright hated) by much of the world. We have made little progress when it comes to global warming. Millions can’t afford health care.

Given this situation, I am sick and tired of Democrats being disorganized, self-interested, and destructive to each other and to our country.

I have an opinion all right; it is my guess that the Clintons aren’t used to being challenged from their own party.

But it appears as if the two camps are calling for people to cool off a bit, as are prominent journalists.

I’ll say this right now: I don’t trust HRC to keep a truce.

Perhaps I’ll be proved wrong.

Something Positive: Obama meet up
This evening Barbara and I went to an Obama meet up. I have a call list, a date to walk with the campaign, and an obligation to write a letter to the editor.

Though Obama has Illinois all but wrapped up, we are a proportional delegate state, and delegates are awarded by congressional district. In our district, we have 4 delegates to be assigned with one delegate per 18.5 percent of the vote. Hence, if we get 88 percent in our district, we get all 4 delegates. If we only get 81 percent, we only get 3 out of the 4 delegates. Hence, “running up the score” is important to us, and “just getting on the board” is important to them.

Some photos:

Political Humor

Kos members living in Michigan are invited to vote for Mitt Romney, as Michigan has no Democratic delegates (as of right now)