We have gone one solid month since the last Democratic contest. Remember that one? Oh, you know, the clearly decisive Mississippi primary.
What the hell has been going on since then? Reverend Wright? Snipergate? Penngate? Bowlingate? Actually, as regards Barack's famous bowling disaster, I can only sympathize, being one of the world's worst bowlers myself. I think Joe Scarborough came up with the best name for this "bowling scandal": "The Altoona Massacre".
These are the stories the media feels required to play and replay repeatedly when we have a 7-week stretch between contests. This is what happens when nothing is going on.
And it's why I've had nothing to write about for the last week.
Polls go up. Polls go down. People get hired. People get fired. Hillary says stupid something. Barack says stupid something. You can set your clock by this crap. The whole last month for me is one long blur of "Hardball", Gallup polls, David Axelrod, Howard Wolfson, fundraising emails, McCain's mental lapses, Bosnian sniper fire, Mark Penn, Chris Matthews' farts, deer-in-headlights Chelsea Clinton, "Why She's Lost", "Why She'll Win", "Race in America", "We don't want Race in America!", on, and on, and on.
I meet up with friends, and they ask me what I think about the current politics, and sometimes I feel like opening my mouth and moaning would explain everything. Often now, that's what I actually do.
I don't like being this negative on a fellow Democrat like Hillary. I don't think any of us are used to being against each other this intensely, for this long. I think it's warped some of our perspective.
When I used to visit pro-Hillary blogs, the comments sections had some weird ideas floating in them about Obama being a "closet racist", but the bloggers themselves were a lot more restrained. Now, when I return, I see it's the Hillary bloggers themselves who are writing pieces like "Barack Obama Is The New George Wallace".
When I used to visit Daily Kos, the premiere left-wing community blogsite, it was an exhilarating, heavily dissenting town square of internal Democratic debate. Now, all the Hillary bloggers have abandoned the site, "going on strike" (really), and it's become a uniformly pro-Obama blog.
Much as I agree with the politics, that isn't good for Daily Kos, it isn't good for the Democrats, and it isn't good for the progressive movement. And, needless to say, neither is "Barack Obama Is The New George Wallace". How disgusting is that?
So, back to pure politics:
Obama is climbing in Pennsylvania, but he's likely hit a ceiling that keeps him about 5-8 points behind Hillary on Election Day—still 11 agonizingly long days away. While Clinton has to win Pennsylvania by at least 15 points to even pretend to have a credible chance at overcoming Obama in the popular vote, any kind of win will be treated by both her campaign, and the media, as a major comeback after all the bad press and sniper fire she has suffered through. Sound familiar?
And so the campaign goes on, as it appears it will until I'm collecting Social Security.
The only good news is that Obama still has an almost-guaranteed lock on the nomination, no matter how long this thing drags on. Far better news would be if his all-out assault on Pennsylvania proves me wrong and pays off, clenching the state, and thus, the nomination. There is simply no way Clinton can continue her campaign if he wins in the Keystone State.
That said, don't count it. Believe me, I've counted on too many decisive states this primary season to play that game again!
