You say "racist." I say "sexist." You say "McCarthy." I say "stained
blue dress." Welcome to the increasingly braindead Democratic primary
contest, where the infinitesimal substantive differences between Barack
Obama and Hillary Clinton were exhausted months ago and now nary a day
passes without one candidate slamming the other's honesty, character,
readiness or electability.
Observers have spent the past few
months fretting that the longer this snipping and sniping goes on, the
harder it will be for the party to unify around an eventual nominee.
Now the worrywarts have some statistics to "support" their suspicions.
According a Gallup survey released this morning, 28 percent of Clinton supporters would
vote for John McCain over Barack Obama in the general election, and 19 percent of Obama supporters
would chose McCain over Clinton."The data," says Gallup, "suggest that the continuing and sometimes fractious Democratic
nomination fight could have a negative impact for the Democratic Party in next
November's election."
I don't doubt that this contest is more polarized than what we've seen
in the past. When race and gender replace ideology and policy as points
of distinction, the battleground becomes personal, not political; the
longer the campaign, the more time each side has to suspect (and
accuse) the other of racism or sexism. Needless to say, those
exchanges, amplified by a drama-addicted media, wreak more havoc
than disagreements over ethanol or education. According to a recent Pew poll,
for example, 20 percent of white Democrats and 14 percent of Democratic
women say they would defect to McCain if Obama were the nominee. So
even though I expect many of these turncoats to untwist their knickers
in time for Election Day--especially after
their candidate of choice spends months campaigning for his or her
victorious rival (or even running on the same ticket)--I think it's
safe to assume that a greater number than usual (which is about 10
percent, according to Gallup) will cross party lines.
To
which I say: grow up. Elections aren't about spite. They're about
picking a president. If you truly think that McCain would make a better
POTUS than Obama, go ahead and defect. But I doubt that nearly 30
percent of Clinton's Democratic base would rather elect a Republican
who disagrees with them on Iraq, taxes, the economy and education than
a Democrat whose views match their own (and their candidate's). Ditto for the Obamaniacs who
threaten to jump ship. But maybe I'm wrong. Maybe not electing
Clinton or Obama will be more important to these people than steering
the country in their party's desired direction. If so, and if these
defectors propel McCain to victory in November, it won't be the media,
in the end, that diminishes the importance of "the issues"--it will be
the voters. And that would just be childish.
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