If you want real Dem primary coverage get it from the Socialists.

[McCamy Taylor]

As Noam Chomsky and Edward S. Herman make clear in this excerpt from "Manufacturing Consent" almost everything you hear and see on the MSM about the Democratic Primary is going to be complete and utter bullcrap. See here:

http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Herman%20/Manufac_Consent_Prop_Model.html


However, I was amazed to find this article which accurately described recent events in the Democratic Primary. It was from the World Socialist Web Site:

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2008/mar2008/obam-m14.shtml

Democratic Party divisions deepen as Obama parades military support
By Patrick Martin
14 March 2008

The rival campaigns for the Democratic Party presidential nomination intensified their mutual mudslinging over race, gender, and political tactics, as the two candidates each vied for support among the top party officials and corporate interests that will tip the balance in the closely contested race.

snip

Since only 595 delegates are still to be chosen in the remaining primaries and caucuses, and these will be divided relatively evenly because of proportional representation, it is effectively impossible for either candidate to reach the total of 2,025 required for nomination simply by winning pledged delegates.

The decision will be in the hands of the 796 superdelegates, about half of them not yet committed publicly. The two campaigns are waging an increasingly ferocious and unscrupulous struggle to gain their support.

While the Clinton campaign has focused on a right-wing attack on the issue of national security, the Obama campaign has resorted to inciting racial polarization. The focus was an attack on former congresswoman Geraldine Ferraro, the 1984 Democratic vice-presidential candidate and a prominent Clinton fundraiser.

And then there is this:

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2008/feb2008/prim-f28.shtml

Unable to effect a change of course through internal pressure, these forces are evidently, through the Obama campaign, taking their factional struggle into the public arena and making an appeal to the broader population. They have rallied behind Obama because they view Clinton as inalterably linked to the disastrous Iraq war and because, as numerous Democratic commentators have explained, they see in Obama, an African-American with less political baggage than his opponent, an opportunity to present a new image of America to the world.

One must always bear in mind that those within the Democratic Party establishment who are pressing for a change in course are by no means advocating a break with imperialism or repudiating the use of military force as an instrument of foreign policy. Rather, Obama advisers and critics of the Iraq war like Zbigniew Brzezinski are seeking to make US imperialist policy more effective. A major concern within these circles is the need for a president who could rally popular support at a time when the interests of the US ruling elite might require military actions in other parts of the world.

Obama’s mind-numbing platitudes—his empty slogans of “hope” and “change” and invocations of the “American Dream”—cannot address the profound contradictions of American capitalism and the crises that beset it both at home and abroad. There is, moreover, the danger, from the standpoint of the ruling elite, that his candidacy could unwittingly serve as a catalyst in the political radicalization of broad masses of working people and youth.

Maybe now people at DU can see why members of the left wing (as opposed to people like Pelosi who think that supporting Obama can make up for the fact that she has not gotten us out of the war or impeached Bush and can help her save her seat) could care less whether it is Hillary or Obama. John Edwards was pretty good. Dennis Kucinich was better (though unelectable). We will support whichever you nominate. Just do it with good grace would you? John McCain is so much worse.

[JoFerret]

1. Interesting stuff...with merit. this strikes a chord

Among other things - this strikes a chord

<<While the Clinton campaign has focused on a right-wing attack on the issue of national security, the Obama campaign has resorted to inciting racial polarization. The focus was an attack on former congresswoman Geraldine Ferraro, the 1984 Democratic vice-presidential candidate and a prominent Clinton fundraiser.


Plus the hope that: <<Obama’s mind-numbing platitudes—his empty slogans of “hope” and “change” and invocations of the “American Dream”—cannot address the profound contradictions of American capitalism and the crises that beset it both at home and abroad. There is, moreover, the danger, from the standpoint of the ruling elite, that his candidacy could unwittingly serve as a catalyst in the political radicalization of broad masses of working people and youth.

That would be good.