<p>Ahh, prepackaged conventions. What’s the media to do? How about rehash the primaries? Hence, we have the Hillary Clinton narrative that <a href=”http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalradar/2008/08/showdown-obama.html” target=”_blank”>just</a>
<a href=”http://www.usnews.com/articles/news/campaign-2008/2008/08/25/at-the-convention-clinton-delegates-say-obama-has-work-to-do.html” target=”_blank”>won’t</a>
<a href=”http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/aug/25/hillaryclinton.uselections2008″ target=”_blank”>die</a>: The party’s divided, delegates are going to spoil the convention, chaos will reign (cross your fingers).</p>
<p>The <i>
<a href=”http://www.cjr.org/campaign_desk/debunking_obamas_hillary_probl.php?page=all” target=”_blank”>Columbia Journalism Review</a>
</i>’s Campaign Desk smacked down the tired media meme last week. Choice moment:</p>
<p>
<i>[T]he angry-women-will-sink-Obama myth is yet another example of the media confusing activist opinion with public opinion in general. And public opinion generally defies such a simple–if dramatic–storyline.</i>
</p>
<p>But the media’s not the only one dumping gasoline on a dying fire. There’s also the McCain camp, which just released this ad:</p>
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<p>Kevin Drum, newly blogging for <a title=”Mother Jones” href=”http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2008/08/selfparody_watch.html” target=”_blank”>
<em>Mother Jones</em>
</a>, surmises that “the folks running McCain’s war room are getting cabin fever or something.” But that could be a good thing:</p>
<p>
<i>Maybe an attack ad this transparent will be just the thing to finally get all those ex-Hillary supporters fully on board with Obama.</i>
</p>
<p>Drum points to some savvy analysis by Jonathan Cohn at the <i>
<a href=”http://blogs.tnr.com/tnr/blogs/the_plank/archive/2008/08/24/can-clinton-end-this-controversy-yes-she-can.aspx” target=”_blank”>New Republic</a>
</i>, who notes that despite all the hand-wringing about party unity, the Democrats are remarkably in step with each other:</p>
<p>
<i>[F]or all the talk of disunity, the really remarkable story about the Democrats right now is the absence of meaningful dissent on the party’s agenda. When it comes to substance, the Democrats are arguably more united than they have been since the early 1960s. Yes, you can find divisions on both domestic and foreign policy, on everything from the relative priority of deficit reduction to America’s response to Darfur. But these debates don’t match the kind we’ve seen in the past.</i>
</p>
<p>For her part, Hillary had <a href=”http://voices.washingtonpost.com/livecoverage/2008/08/clinton_calls_for_unity_as_con.html” target=”_blank”>this to say</a> about McCain’s ad blasts this morning at a breakfast for the New York delegation: “I’m Hillary Clinton, and I do not approve that message.”</p>
<p>
<i>For more of Utne.com’s ongoing coverage of the Democratic National Convention, click <a href=”/blogs/blog.aspx?blogid=30&tag=democratic%20national%20convention” target=”_blank”>here</a>.</i>
</p>
