It is splintering the left also....maybe not the talking heads so much but go read the posts after every article posted at each news organization....the masses are not happy campers with either party.
I noticed that at a couple of places I visited to see the source material for articles posted here.
It was interesting. About the defensive comments I could find were (1) The Patriot Act was signed by Bush and (2) both sides do it.
Other than that, there is no defense for Obama to be found.