Civil War: Split Decision Divides Democrats
Contested nomination brings enthusiasm, anger as Obama-Clinton battle rages on.
March 21, 2008— -- It didn't take long for bloggers to render their verdict when 11,000 pages of Hillary Clinton's White House schedules were made public this week.
"The veneer has been torn off, and the brazen dishonesty is finally on display," a blogger named David Sirota wrote. "Why doesn't she just get the hell off the stage? Enough is enough!" a poster chimed in.
Added another: "These people and their $50 million in personal sleaze wealth, along with their using any segment of the electorate for power, must be thrown out of the party."
Was this a Republican Web site? A discussion group for conservatives?
It was one of the most influential blogs on the political left, Daily Kos, and the posters were liberals enraged at Hillary Clinton and her husband, the former president.
Some Democratic leaders have warned that the epic battle between Sens. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., and Barack Obama, D-Ill., risks damaging the party the longer it drags on.
The split between Clinton and Obama supporters is in full fury and on full display online.
The chasm is growing wider by the day, raising alarms among Democrats that it will become more and more difficult to patch things up and unify around the eventual nominee.
"I think it is a real danger," said former Democratic strategist Bob Shrum, now a lecturer at New York University. "It is very bad for the party and bad for the country to take what was a very uplifting election where, frankly, Democrats liked both candidates, and have it turn into this."
Shrum added: "It some ways this is made worse by the fact that there really is no principle of ideology here. In 1980, when Ted Kennedy challenged Jimmy Carter, there were huge policy differences on health care, what to do about Afghanistan, and inflation. Those were really big arguments. This is not what we have here.… Instead of being about ideology, it is all very personal."
Related Stories
ABC News Live