Obama Camp in Snit Mode Over Carville’s Comments

Incipient puma James Carville let it all out last night on CNN, criticizing “Obama’s Convention” for offering no positive message or even going a little negative on Bush and McCain.

“The way they planned it tonight was supposed to be sort of the personal — Michelle Obama will talk about Barack Obama personally, Ted Kennedy was a very personal, emotional speech,” Carville said. “But I guarantee on the first night of the Republican Convention, you’re going to hear talk about Barack Obama, commander-in-chief, tax cuts, et cetera, et cetera.”

“You haven’t heard about Iraq or John McCain or George W. Bush — I haven’t heard any of this. We are a country that is in a borderline recession, we are an 80 percent wrong-track country. Health care, energy — I haven’t heard anything about gas prices,” Carville also says. “Maybe we are going to look better Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. But right now, we’re playing hide the message.”

Oh dear! I guess Carville forgot that Clinton backers are supposed to STFU and spout the Obama party line. Will Obama order CNN to dump him again as they did during the primaries? The Wall Street Journal reports that Obama’s campaign is a bit PO’d at Carville right now.

Obama strategist Robert Gibbs pooh-poohed such talk Tuesday morning.

“What we set out to do last night I think was accomplished in a very, very big way,” he said, pointing to Michelle Obama’s well-received speech that touted Obama’s biography and her own.

Yeah, because it’s so much more essential that we hear more about Barack’s and Michelle’s upbringing and how they struggled to overcome being born into middle-class families with good incomes and nice homes. Oh yes, they had it so hard growing up! Poor Barack was forced to go to an exclusive private high school and Michelle’s Dad was an intimate of powerful Mayor Daley. Wow, I feel for them, I really do. And of course we need to hear about how Michelle met Barack and how and why they fell madly in love and what happened when she bore their first child. And on and on. Yes, these are the things America really cares about, James–not health care, taxes, or Iraq. Get a clue!

You just don’t get it, James. The message was there, you just missed it. The message was Unity!

Unity WAS the message,” said Hadley, an Obama delegate from Rockdale County. That’s him in the picture, taken last night from the floor of the Pepsi Center, where the convention is being held.

Hadley said the opening night was about Democrats coming together, not about the other side. There’s plenty of time for that in the next three nights, he said.

Fellow delegate Steve Leeds, an upledged delegate backing nominee-to-be Barack Obama, agreed. U.S. Sen. Ted Kennedy’s emotional appearance was the highlight, Leeds said, as was a “strong and warm” speech from Michelle Obama.

Right, because if you go out there and pretend there is unity long enough, unity will magically appear and all will be right with the Party and the world. See how that works?

Oh wait. What’s this?

As he watched the first night of his Democratic National Convention from the cozy living room of local supporters Jim and Alicia Girardeau, Sen. Barack Obama undoubtedly wanted his wife, Michelle Obama, the headline speaker Monday, to be the news-making highlight of the day. But vocal protestors, the media and a few complicated egos directed the public’s attention earlier in the day to his primary rival, Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y.

As frustrated Democrats converged on Denver yesterday, some began chanting “caucus fraud,” while others shouted the word “sweetie,” a reference to the time Obama called a female reporter by the same name. One Clinton supporter who spoke to ABC News said Obama couldn’t be trusted. Another said, “He’s shifty and untrustworthy.” It was assuredly not the kind of message Obama and his diligently image-conscious team were counting on at the Democratic National Convention.

And this?

“I’m thoroughly disgusted with the Democratic Party. I believe the magic of Barack Obama was his ability to turn lifelong Democrats like us into McCain supporters overnight,” said Cynthia Ruccia, who organized the group Clinton Supporters Count Too as a way for swing voters to campaign against Obama.

“My vote is a protest vote. I live in Ohio, I know our votes count in a very special way because whoever wins Ohio is often the person who becomes the president of the United States. And I do not want to reward the Democratic Party with my vote. I am disgusted with them.”

And this? And what about this?

Conventions are derided as scripted affairs, but this one has no single script. The Clinton supporters in particular are unwilling to go along with what many see as a foreordained week. Their acronym, PUMA, stands for “Party Unity My (bottom),” and they chanted lustily about a stolen election, bad caucuses and traitorous leaders. In the backdrop of “Hardball,” they were enough to all but drown out Chris Matthews and his guests, forcing him to address the drama unfolding right behind him.

“I feel like the Democrats have not been practicing democracy,” said Jane Rizzo, a protester who came here from California. “I have been a Democrat for 30 years and have voted the party all the way down to dogcatcher. Not so this year.”

No one knows if she or her cohort will make good on that threat. And no one knows if the blog insurgency will overtake the consensus emanating from the big media buildings on the parking lot of the press center. It’s the first day, after all, and the knitting and bonding that will occur in the ensuing days may make vast chasms close up quickly. But right now, Denver feels less like one big tent than one that is under construction.

Poor Barack. His Unity message is being drowned out by nasty pumas. What could be the solution to all this madness?

We already know the answer, don’t we Conflucians? Hillary must fix Barack’s puma problem. Surely Hillary will bring unity with her speech tonight.

Clinton has urged her supporters to fall in line behind Obama, who is slowly marching across the country before making his acceptance speech in Denver on Thursday. But Clinton has said that the people who voted for her during the convention should have their voices heard and be able to cast their votes.

“There is no doubt in anyone’s mind that this is Barack Obama’s convention,” Clinton told reporters. And yet, she said, some of her delegates “feel an obligation to the people who sent them here” and would vote for her.

Don’t worry, Barack. I’m sure Hillary will figure out some way to fix everything for you. It sounds like you and Howard have already forced her to make the roll call “symbolic.” She needs to just tell those pumas to snap out of it. Yeah, that’s the ticket. We wouldn’t want to you to actually have to ask for the votes of her supporters, or–heaven forbid–offer any concessions in return for their votes. After all, we are only a bunch of old menopausal hags! Why should you bother talking to us?

Yes, I’m sure tonight in her speech, Hillary will find a way to convince me and all the other millions of pumas to vote for Barack. I feel sure that Hillary will endure any humiliation, make any sacrifice, and perform any task–no matter how menial–to ensure that Barack gets the “unity” he deserves. Because after all, that is her job.

UPDATE:Oops! Looks like Hillary has another mess to clean up for Barack. It sounds like Bill is implying he might vote for McCain.

The former president, speaking in Denver, posed a hypothetical question in which he seemed to suggest that that the Democratic Party was making a mistake in choosing Obama as its presidential nominee.

He said: “Suppose you’re a voter, and you’ve got candidate X and candidate Y. Candidate X agrees with you on everything, but you don’t think that candidate can deliver on anything at all. Candidate Y you agree with on about half the issues, but he can deliver. Which candidate are you going to vote for?”

Then, perhaps mindful of how his off-the-cuff remarks might be taken, Clinton added after a pause: “This has nothing to do with what’s going on now.”

Naaaaaah! That could never happen…..right?