An Epiphany

Eugene Robinson of the Washington Post has a column, "The Race That Wouldn't Die," in which he expresses an idea I've had for a while that the race for the Democratic nomination needs to end soon. He gets this point across without overtly suggesting that Hillary Clinton drop out...

No, I'm not calling for Clinton to get out of the race. It's ridiculous to advise a candidate who just won Pennsylvania by 10 points to pack it in, even if it's still hard to imagine a plausible way for her to win the nomination.

And it is, you know; the delegate arithmetic has hardly budged. Clinton would have a realistic chance of eliminating the future rebel leader who someday will threaten the dominion of sentient machines over all of humankind -- I mean, of defeating Barack Obama -- only if her opponent were gracious enough to dissolve into a quivering puddle. She has done everything she can to encourage such a meltdown, but by now it should be clear that it won't happen.

Conventional wisdom, which rarely has anything to do with real wisdom, suggests that the long, drawn out fight for the nomination is harming the Democratic Party, that Clinton's attempts to undermine Obama's gravitas to be president will hurt him in the general election against McCain, tarnishing him with independent voters. I agreed with Robinson 100 percent. He even threw in the "long national nightmare" phrase that seemed to sum up the race.

But the next sentence after the quoted section above triggered an epiphany: "If anything, Obama is learning some of Clinton's war craft." Clinton staying in the race could be a good thing. If Obama can't learn to deal with the issues that are out there now, he's going to have some real problems on down the road. The Republican attack machine, the Swift Boaters Against Truth and other special interest groups are going to attack Obama in ways that rational people can't comprehend. Opposition research trolls will begin pulling attacks out of thin air. The real fun in this campaign season is still a good four or five months away when both sides begin making a real play for these independent voters, these politically inept individuals who "vote for the man, not the party." Let the race continue. Our candidate needs a little toughening up.

And while we're on the subject of the Washington Post, I just recently noticed that they are now doing animations of Ann Telnaes's political cartoons. The latest, I would call it "Georgie in Wonderland," is pretty excellent.

Technorati Tags: Eugene Robinson, Washington Post, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, our long national nightmare, epiphany, Ann Telnaes, Georgie in Wonderland, 2008 election

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