Big Daddy

Hey Big Daddy,

All this talk about Democratic Party friction – Obama vs. Clinton – is it real? Inquiring minds want to know.

-Stuck in Sacramento

Hey Stuck,

Imagine there was something that you wanted real bad – say it's a teddy bear – and you've wanted this teddy bear for a real long time. You waited in line, you were told by thousands of people that you were next, that it was your turn. And then, out of nowhere, someone else comes along and cuts in front of you, and grabs the last one.

You'd be ticked, right? Imagine what Hillary Clinton has had to go through this week, and the endless cable television psycho-babbling beast demands more and more fodder. I'm sure Hillary Clinton isn't real happy about losing, and I can't imagine what it would be like to be under the microscope she's been under for the last two months, monitoring her grace in defeat.

The only thing America loves more than a winner is a good loser, and as silver medalists go, it's hard to know what else Hillary Clinton could do to convince the world that she supports Barack Obama.

As for the PUMA crew – the Party Unity My Ass folks who have threatened to vote for John McCain over Barack Obama – you're not ever going to satisfy those people. A Hillary supporter voting for McCain because Clinton lost the nomination is like a kid opting to drink a gallon of castor oil because they ran out of strawberry ice cream, instead of just going with the mint chip.

But making them into some national movement is more journalistically irresponsible than most of the typical irresponsible journalistic drivel we're all usually exposed to. I mean, have you watched MSNBC or Fox News recently? This is not news. These networks are caricatures, filled with cheerleading partisans, and token, strawmen offering the differing points of view, just so everything is "fair and balanced." Alan Colmes, Fox's token Democrat, is about as forceful a spokesman for his cause as Pat Buchanan, MSNBC's token conservative, is for his. And that ain't sayin' much.

But anybody who's ever been to a state or national convention already knows a little secret about convention goers – these people are not normal. The media knows it, the party regulars know it, and sometimes I think even the wackos themselves know it. But using these people as representative of some kind of widespread movement is at best a journalistic mistake, and at worst, an effort to make a conflict where there is none. I get it – the media needs a story. Heck, they always said that Gov. Pat Brown and I didn't get along when in actuality, well, I couldn't stand the man.

Perhaps that's a bad example.

Could you imagine if people really judged our political parties by the fringe elements that attend these conventions?

Point being, this little bit of conventional wisdom (pun intended, thank you very much) is bouncing around the media echo chamber, and in that sense, it's an issue. But once we get a few more good, old-fashioned attack ads going, this spat may become a distant memory.

Unless, of course, Obama loses, in which case, the Clintons will forever be blamed for destroying his presidential campaign, and then some real feuding can begin.