After tapping out a link to last night’s discord-in-Denver story by Politico‘s John F. Harris and Mike Allen, two HE talk-backers gave me pause — “hepwa” and “dinther” by name — and then two e-mails came in with a counter-balance effect.
One, from HE contributor Moises Chiullan, reminded me that “Politico and other outlets have to create stories and will selectively show Clinton-Obama acrimony and separatism when, according to Clinton supporters I know who are in Denver, there is a lot less PUMA-style division at work.”
The other came from MSNBC’s First Read, to wit: “With so many of Hillary Clinton‘s most ardent supporters in Denver, is the political press corps here in danger of over-hyping Obama’s problem with Hillary backers? Yes, our most recent NBC/WSJ poll showed that Obama has yet to win some of them over, and that (in part) explains why he hasn’t pulled away from McCain. But a brand-new Washington Post/ABC poll also had Obama getting more Clinton support than he’s ever received since she dropped out of the race back in June.
“No doubt Obama still has some work to do, and he has two-plus months — including this convention — to make the sale. But the point we’re trying to make is that perhaps the Democratic Party is more unified than PUMA-on-the-street interviews might suggest.
“Indeed, today’s New York Times/CBS poll of Dem convention delegates probably has it right: 60% of Hillary’s delegates enthusiastically support Obama, 31% support him with reservations or because he’s the nominee, and 5% don’t support him at all. But the Clinton folks will have an impact on the media narrative this week. In fact, they already they have — see Ed Rendell at the media confab yesterday and today’s Politico piece by Harris and Allen.”