We do seem to operate in a world where there's something unseemly about intra-party political disagreement and we somehow lack the appropriate discourse for it. Mostly there seems to be an inability to acccept the fact that different candidates do have different priorities and different visions for the world and that their desired policies and expressed priorities would likely have different impacts on different segments of the population.
There's a tendency to see political differences as simple rankings ("my health plan is better than yours!") instead of seeing them as... genuine differences. And consequently disagreements tend to be painted as fights about who is more awesome rather than just disagreements.
As an aside, one of the more amusingly revealing comments by Joe Klein recently was when he expressed his belief that both he and Dick Armey were playing within the 40 yard lines. It's very important for Joe Klein's identity to believe that's where he, and all sensible people, are playing. It's also very important for people like Dick Armey to con people like Joe Klein into thinking that they're just quibbling about the details. But the fact is that Dick Armey is selling a vision for this country which is radically different than what mushy centrist Joe Klein supports. That he fails to see this after all this time, even as he constantly fights the dirty fucking hippies who live under his bed, is hilarious.
