Who has the unity problem again?

During yesterday’s ‘Daily’ I mentioned Oklahoma Congressional Democrat Dan Boren who said he is refusing to endorse his party’s nominee, Sen. Obama.

One Democrat says he won’t endorse his party’s candidate and it dominates the news. You surf news sites and you see headlines like ‘Not all Democrats falling for Obama” and “Not all Democrats going for Obama”…

News about 14 of them coming out and saying they wont’ endorse their party’s candidate should be BIG news too, right?

Apparently not, because that’s what’s happening to Sen. McCain, and so far the main-stream media has been abnormally silent on the subject.

From The Hill; “At least 14 Republican members of Congress have refused to endorse or publicly support Sen. John McCain for president, and more than a dozen others declined to answer whether they back the Arizona senator [...] McCain’s campaign seized on some Democrats’ reticence about Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), issuing a release on Tuesday that highlighted that Rep. Dan Boren (D-Okla.) is not endorsing the presumptive nominee. While some conservative Democrats have yet to endorse Obama and didn’t back Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) in 2004, there are both centrist and conservative Republicans representing various parts of the country who are not embracing McCain. [ …] Republican members who have not endorsed or publicly backed McCain include Sens. Chuck Hagel (Neb.) and Jeff Sessions (Ala.) and Reps. Jones, Peterson, John Doolittle (Calif.), Randy Forbes (Va.), Wayne Gilchrest (Md.), Virgil Goode (Va.), Tim Murphy (Pa.), Ron Paul (Texas), Ted Poe (Texas), Todd Tiahrt (Kan.), Dave Weldon (Fla.) and Frank Wolf (Va.).”

Now… unless my math is wrong (and it’s not), I count at the least 26 republicans that are trying to distance themselves from McCain.

Some of the names included are meaningless as they are not running for re-election and are lame-ducks; would YOU want an endorsement from Larry Craig?

We knew Ron Paul and his supporters wouldn’t support McCain (especially since they still have a notion of getting the nomination), and Hagel isn’t a surprise either considering that Hagel is a very vocal opponent to the Bush(whacked) Administration's policies on Iraq (and thus McCain’s policies on Iraq) and is a co-sponsor of the Webb GI Bill proposal that McCain vehemently opposes.

Having said all that, while some of the names are meaningless, some aren’t and carry a stigma with not getting their endorsement.

Some of those refusing to endorse McCain are facing serious challenges to retaining their seats such as Virgil Goode, Don Young and possibly Frank Wolf.

And still others seem in no jeopardy to lose re-election (Jeff Sessions, Buck McKeon, Rodney Frelinghuysen, Rep. Randy Forbes) and one is forced to wonder why they have either the opposition or the reluctance to endorse McCain?

We know McCain is not the favorite of quite a few republican Senators (Pete Domenici and Chuck Grassley immediately come to mind when you consider Senators who have been turned off by McCain's previous actions and words), but these lists represent a substantial chunk of the republican membership of the 110th Congress.

That’s not even taking the Bob Barr campaign into account.

And consider this also; last week, Simon Rosenberg, head of the New Democratic Network, said at a forum that McCain was the “worst presidential candidate” in the nation’s modern political history, and contended that there was a “25% chance” that he would be replaced as the Party’s nominee.

Could you imagine that? While it’s true that there is no role for super-delegates in the republican party like we have in the Democratic party, there are more than a few republicans worried that McCain's campaign has the potential of inflicting some serious damage down-ballot.

They see the gaffes, the mis-statements, the disorganization and worry that at some point the press narrative might flip-flop themselves and, rather than be overtly friendly and give McCain a pass on his screw-ups, and start delving deeper into this errs, thus making the narrative, implicitly, raise questions about McCain's readiness for high office… could enough stories about him not remembering his own legislation or statements he has previously made on the record be the start of a discussion of whether he is too old or lacks the "necessities" of meeting the demands of the office?

We Democrats are right to not take anything for granted, especially when we’re still this far out from the actual election… before VP selections are made and convention speeches are given and joint appearances are made… but I AM encouraged by the apparent disunity in the gop…

Granted, some of Clinton's voters are still being antagonistic, but almost all of the Congressionals that HAD supported her are now moving their support to Obama… and when you contrast that with the lists above, it makes you want to know one thing.

Explain to me which party has the ‘unity’ problem again…