A Chequer-Board of Nights and Days

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama on Monday, in a major speech on patriotism, criticized MoveOn.org for referring to Gen. David Petraeus as General Betray Us last year.

The Illinois senator said politics too often seems "trapped in old, threadbare arguments" that he called "caricatures of left and right."

This, Obama added, was "most evident during our recent debates about the war in Iraq, when those who opposed administration policy were tagged by some as unpatriotic, and a general providing his best counsel on how to move forward in Iraq was accused of betrayal."

Of course, as the story mentions, Obama did not vote on a Senate resolution condemning MoveOn.org for its attacks on Petraeus. But I am curious to see whether this attack, the distancing away from Clark and Obama's decision to surrender on FISA reform rather than to cater to the wishes of the base and the netroots will cause the emergence of a lack of enthusiasm amongst the Democratic faithful. The partisans can't be pleased with any of this, after all.