Noticed in the coverage over Wes Clark's comments on McCain's military experience, with which it's hard to disagree, a reference to Obama backing away from said comments. I was a little surprised. They're being misconstrued, intentionally, no surprise, and I thought Obama might be supporting them, since they do undercut McCain's claims to national security superiority.

So, followed The Hill link http://thehill.com/campaign-2008/obama-criticizes-moveon.org-in-patriotism-speech-2008-06-30.html and checked it out.

From being a little bit angry that Obama wasn't backing Clark, it dawned on me that Obama is simply not interested in a 'fight'. I don't mean that he's a coward, but that it seems to me what he's intuiting, and risking all by basing his campaign on it, is that America is tired of polarization, and he's trying to rise above it by simply walking past opportunities to get in 'fights'. 

Of course, we've heard the rhetoric about moving past partisan division. But many seem to be confused about what Obama has been doing lately: triangulating, moving to the center, what have you. I don't think he's reaching out, per se. I don't think he's maneuvering. I think this is actually a large part of "change": refusing to encourage the sniping, the point-scoring, the narrative of nasty, bickering division and entrenchment.

And naturally, after the last eight years, most of us are spoiling for a fight. But I don't think Obama is interested in that moment of vindication/payback. I think he's more interested in actually being able to go to work to do what's achievable, and in trying to transition the country into a "post-partisan" mindset.

Of course, it's not very emotionally satisfying. And it can seem bereft of principle. But given the realities of how paralyzed and divided our politics has become, how petty and maddening, it actually seems to me to be the direction we need. It's like, "What if they put on a war and no one showed up?"

So much of what we'd like to see and hear...In truth, it would only prolong hostilities and deepen rancor. And this is where I think Obama's coming from.  It's simple, and it makes sense. Sort of like saying to estranged relatives, "Look, you can come home for Thanksgiving again. No one will be throwing potato salad, and Uncle Dave and Aunt Jenny have agreed to stop calling each other names."

Not that Aunt Jenny didn't have a point when she said Uncle Dave was a neocon thug.