Obama v Clinton

I came into this primary season truly undecided (actually in my best Buffalo Bills fan mode I was pulling for Joe Biden), but felt that the Democrats were going to be in great shape with a terrific nominee no matter what (assuming hell didn't freeze over and Dennis Kucinich was the party standard-bearer). After all, the GOP was probably going to go with either Mitt or Rudy, both of whom were easily beatable, and after the most incompetent administration since Herbert Hoover, 2008 was looking (in the immortal words of George Tenant) like a lay-up.

Today, I'm not so sure. It now appears that John McCain is going to face either Hillary Clinton (which means he's already assured of 49% of the vote, since that's how many people in this country HATE her) or a badly bruised Barack Obama (once you've had the kitchen sink thrown on your head, it's hard to look good). And if you think that a McCain presidency "wouldn't be all that bad" take a look at Matt Taibbi's piece in Rolling Stone http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/18721308/mccain_resurr...

Really, it's a) sad or b) frightening just how the Clintons play hardball. As my friend Catherine says, they're the Macbeths of American politics. First there was Bill's performance leading up to the South Carolina primary. Then, last week's appearance on "60 Minutes" where Hillary had the unmitigated gall to respond to Steve Croft's question about the rumors that Obama is a Muslim with “No. No. Why would I? No, there is nothing to base that on. As far as I know.” AS FAR AS I KNOW!!?!?!?!? How about a simple "Of course he isn't" never mind that the real answer from both Obama and Clinton should be "SO WHAT."

And did anybody ever think that we'd live to see a Democratic candidate for president, much less the first woman with a serious shot, campaign against hope? So here we are looking at 6 weeks and $60million being dropped in Pennsylvania as they beat each other up. Maybe it'll be even worse, as the Clintons continue to flog Obama and he can't find an effective way to respond. After all, he's built his campaign around being a different kind of candidate, so he's damned if he responds to her "in-kind" and likely to be pummeled if he tries to work the high road. As great as it was to see voters in the early states take things seriously (god love those folks in Iowa and New Hampshire), never forget we live in a country that elected Reagan twice and W twice despite being either the dumbest man ever to hold the job, or the most dishonest (and I'm including Nixon).

So, here's hoping that the negative campaigning has run its course (I doubt it, but sometimes we get lucky), and Hillary and Barack can run the rest of this campaign like they did for those few weeks leading up to Super Tuesday when the California debate was a civil discussion of their differences and how to best beat the Republicans.