Gene Lyons

is very concerned about the prospect the Democratic Party will tear itself apart before the fall campaign and looks at the media's aiding and abetting this schism, or, most likely, causing it:

Princeton historian (and Clinton supporter ) Sean Wilentz recently spelled it out in a must-read essay at huffingtonpost. com. Not only does it appear likely that Clinton will end up with a clear lead in the popular vote come June 3, but it’s imperative to understand that since Andrew Jackson first built a winning coalition in 1828, exactly one Democrat has become president “without winning either Ohio or Pennsylvania, with their large, white, working-class vote.” “ Beginning in 1964, when the Democratic solid South dissolved, ” Wilentz writes, “every successful Democratic presidential candidate has had to carry both Ohio and Pennsylvania, even when Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton picked up Southern states.” It’s not only offensive to scorn working-class Clinton supporters as “NASCAR man,” “ uneducated, ” “low-information whites,” “ rubes, ” “fools” and “hate-mongers,” it’s political suicide. Every available poll shows that economics, health care and national security motivate such voters, not bigotry. Academic leftists have daydreamed about a winning coalition of African Americans and latte-sipping idealists since forever, but it’s never worked before, and there’s no reason to believe it can work in 2008.

Of course this has happened before, in 1972, and like that year, the Democratic Party voters were manipulated into voting for the weakest candidate. As I have written repeatedly, the difference is in 1972, Nixon's boys broke the law in order to get the easiest candidate for Nixon to beat while this year, the GOP didn't have to break any laws, just exploited election laws in the different states (crossover voting, caucuses) and had the media refuse to vet Barack Obama until it was/is almost too late. The lack of vetting was deliberate. There is no question the media knows all about Obama's shady connections in Chicago ans of other questionable associations, whether it is Ayers in Chicago or Odinga in Kenya. They refused to do anything, which is a horrible disservice to the American people.

People have to recognize the media, now largely GOP-leaning, does not have their interests at heart. Right now they are solely in the business of propping up John McCain, but McCain would have a harder time beating a different candidate than he would this horrifically inexperienced, horrifically flawed candidate Barack Obama. If that means creating a situation of dividing the Democrats, which is music to the ears of somebody like Karl Rove, so much the better.