Cartoon by Mike Smith, Las Vegas Sun

Last night was the first chance I had to listen to the punditocracy bloviating about how things are going.  I’m not even certain these people were at the same convention that I’ve been at this week.  

For example, the constant blather about whether the Democratic party is divided and how Hillary supporters refuse to support Barack supporters.  And how Barack supporters hate Hillary.  Blah blah blah.

It’s a nice story, but I honestly have yet to find even one delegate that feels that way.   I spent a lot of my week at the end of my very long days of slogging back and forth from the Big Tent blogger venue to the Pepsi Center, chatting with delegates along the way as we herded through the checkpoints and long lines for security scans.  I rode home to the hotel with them in the evenings on the DNC-scheduled buses.

And not once, in my many, many conversations did I hear  any delegate say anything along those lines. 

I talked with some very, very staunch Clinton supporters — including folks who had been district organizers, the boots on the ground folks knocking on doors all around the country, and a few people who had been friends of the Clintons for years.  Yes, they are disappointed that Hillary did not win.  How could they not be, honestly, they are human?

But going to sit out the election or so mad they would vote for McCain?  One of the women I spoke with said that would be an insult to what Hillary has always stood for — and she said it emphatically — before the Clinton speech on Tuesday. 

And Obama voters?  I met several on the bus ride home Tuesday night.  A couple of whom told me they did not like her one bit — but one told me sheepishly that the Hillary speech put tears in her eyes.  "She could not have been more gracious — what an amazing heart she has."

So why do the media pundits keep pimping the divided storyline?  Does the RNC still send out oppo blast faxes?  You betcha.  And, frankly, if the media would have had to admit that the conflict storyline they ginned up to pimp ratings wasn’t something they’d researched very well. 

Does that mean that there aren’t some disgruntled folks on either side?  Of course not.  But the big media-induced chasm?  Full of crap.  And they ought to own up to it.  Think they’ll gin up a crap storyline for the GOP convention?  

Me neither.