Stop the Democrat on Democrat infighting...

[samq79]

Yesterday I made this entry: http://journals.democraticunderground.com/samq79/14
and got several comments connecting the two parts of the entry, because I put both thoughts under the same heading. I'm not going to address the Ann Coulter garbage again, because I know it's unnecessary, but I'd like to go into the other facet of the message, which seemed to get garbled.

We all know that Democrats are not throwing around terms like Ann Coulter, but they are damaging the party's image nevertheless. The current infighting between Obama and Clinton is...well, frankly, it's pathetic. We're 9 months from the first primary, and they're scrapping for constituencies as if we're coming up to the closing bell. As they claw and jockey for position in the fight for the black vote, all the while turning the commemmoration of the civil rights march at Selma into a photo opportunity, the issues are being clouded by who can be photographed in the more black-friendly way.

Now, I am a fan of Obama, and think his ideas, and his fresh, relatively new stature in politics is just what this country could need to get us out of the disaster of Bush's tenure in the White House. The moment he becomes more interested in being a politician, however, is the day he starts to lose ground. I understand that it is important for Obama to garner the black vote, but not at the expense of those things that make him special as a candidate.

I worry that more infighting will cause the democratic ticket to self destruct. In this especially early field, we've already seen candidates flash and burn out. We've also heard a lot of conjecture about people possibly entering the race at a later date. Will Gore or won't he? Who knows at this point, but more importantly, until it happens, who cares. We can't spend our time working on these types of hypotheticals. Instead, the candidates that are in it to win it should show us why they should be president, not why the other guy shouldn't.

For Obama, I believe it should start with being honest. No more sugarcoating to avoid the Conservative Propaganda spin machine. If he thinks the war has been a waste of lives, rather than a sacrifice, he should say it's been a waste. The more the American people hear it, the more they might come closer to realizing it is the truth. Stop condemning your own party for things they say, and instead, back them up. Honesty with the American people would be a refreshing change to the last six years.

[Exilednight]

1. Infighting

There will be nothing done to stop this. Only registered Democratic voters can put a halt to it, and the way to do that is to say I will not vote for a candidate that runs a smear campaign. I haven't seen Obama sling mud yet, and I question if Hillary has. The sad part is, most of the Democratic infighting is caused by the right. They use a divide and conquer strategy. They mention some off statement, like that which Barak made, then they demand an apology, and Democrats chime in and tell him to apologize. The fact is, right leaning Democrats are scared of isolating people, while left leaning Republicans are not.

[Jimmy Hoops]

2. Interesting take but..

I don't know if I agree. The Republicans fight like madmen and seem to fall in line when the nomination comes about. Look at the McCain "illigitimate black child" thing in South Carolina. He endorsed Bush. Maybe the Dems need to be a little more battle tested. Far be it for me to say that we have to be more like Republicans but I would LOVE to see us attack them like they keep attacking us. Am I trippin'?

[loyalkydem]

3. Say what??

Fat chance of that happening. We need something to energize us in order to fight back. But I just don't see that happening.