MB Civic

By Eugene Robinson | Friday, April 25, 2008 | The Washington Post

“…The longer this slugfest continues, the more the eventual nominee will be tarnished in the eyes of independents who are looking for bipartisan solutions to the nation’s problems. Obama, who holds a solid lead of at least 150 pledged convention delegates, clearly would like to shift his campaign into general election mode. But now he has to scrap for every vote in Indiana and North Carolina, which means he has to continue to appeal to the Democratic Party’s activist base — while McCain does photo ops in African American communities and talks about climate change.

All the extraneous ‘issues’ aren’t helping, either. In a sense, it’s better for Obama to deal with spurious questions about aloofness or patriotism now than in the fall — just as it’s better for Clinton, should she be the nominee, to face questions now about truthfulness or the role she envisions for her husband. But after a certain point, a candidate isn’t being tempered by adversity. He or she is just getting bashed.

At least until the votes are counted in Indiana and North Carolina on May 6, there’s not much anyone can do to stop the punishment — except the candidates themselves. Democratic Party elders and superdelegates might not be able to end this thing yet, but they can put the campaigns on notice: Fighting hard for the nomination is understandable, but fighting in such a way as to give the presidency to McCain is unforgivable….”…BS

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/24/AR2008042402985_pf.html