Letters to the Editor
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Whatver it Takes
I think I finally get what's going on in this campaign.
Though the general is 8 months away, it's hard to day voters aren't poisoned against the Democratic Party. I'm seeing blog comments from Republicans saying complimentary things about Hillary and Democrats disparaging Obama the way Rush Limbaugh used to go after Gore.
What it all boils down to is he dared not just to go up against the "annointed one" but also the 49% of the country who supports her. I think Maureen Dowd and Gail Collins hit it on the head when they say a large percentage of the country can identify with the "hard working woman barred from the boardroom by the popular guy for whom everything is easy" narrative. He's suffereing backlash in a big way.
What I've come to understand is that it's hard to assign blame for the situation as easily as some would (Hillary should drop out, they're both actively "tearing the party apart"). Instead I think this is just unfortunate timing. It's a lot like the Oscars-if you happen to release a film that would have won "best picture" in any of the previous ten years in a year when there's an extraordinarily strong field, you've got a problem.
Obama had been weighing whether to run-many encouraged it despite his "inexperience," and I think we're now seeing the fallout of someone who went toe-to-toe with the crown princess and actually "won." No one expected that. And now voters who expected an easy victory for Hillary are so mad they're willing for McCain to win just so Barack learns his lesson.