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"The View" In Black And White

THE PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN IS GETTING EVERYBODY'S HACKLES UP, EVEN THE LADIES OF THE VIEW.

Full disclosure: I've never watched a complete episode of The View. I will not wear that one. But the firestorms that erupt between the five hosts sometimes break through the headlines, and so I got to see Elisabeth Hasselbeck and Sherri Shepherd's "passionate" exchange about Barack Obama's eyebrow-raising ties and John McCain's disloyalty to his first wife. My reaction? "Wow! A real conversation on TV!"

The sentiments expressed by Hasselbeck and Shepherd are spilling out all over America, so why shouldn't they raise the same questions? It does a nation good to clear the air.

The media acts as though America is divided into two camps: liberal or conservative, racists or not, but the truth is far more complicated, nuanced and ephemeral.

The only comment out of line was Joy Behar's flippant remark, "You're listening to Sean Hannity too much!" after Elisabeth rightly pointed out the Democrats' hand in bolstering up a shaky Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae.

That was below the belt, Joy. And, FYI, brush up on your facts.

Even the Washington Post, a media outlet with some of the best liberal cred, reported the Dems' involvement as fact. So does Tina Brown's latest media creation, The Daily Beast, which labeled Congressional Dems as "enablers" in the country's finacial fiasco.

So here's my plea to the ladies, as well as to the nation. Can you stop ganging up on Elisabeth? There's a whole lot of people like her out there, even in Barack territory, except they only say privately what Hasselbeck said publicly.

Geesh, used to be Republicans were the vicious bomb-throwers who thrilled at sowing contempt. This campaign the Dems' have borrowed a page from that playbook. Can we bring some civility back to the debate?