The Democrats need to cool it. Neither Obama nor Clinton will win the general election if they continue to sap each other’s political capital at present rate. Both senators need to instill composure within their respective camps, because the mud the lower levels are slinging is reaching the top. Until recently, they seemingly agreed that the benefit accruing to the Democratic Party from maintaining coherence in the face of Republican enfeeblement is sufficiently decisive to warrant an implicit treaty between them. Now, though, Super Tuesday looms so near that it overshadows considerations of discretion within both campaigns. Both Clinton and Obama can taste the nomination, but each can hear the other drooling, as well. What the Democrats need is an independent elder statesman to prevent the barks from becoming bites; Howard Dean, who as chairman has occasionally had to mediate, does not command enough respect to convince either candidate to subsume ambition into party fidelity. Al Gore is the obvious choice, but the only involvement he wants to have in presidential politics, understandably, is as a presidential candidate.
However, there seems to be a confluence of factors more powerful than intramural sniping that suggests there will not be a Republican president. The tide is coming in for the Democratic wing. The American public is wounded by the deceit of this Administration, dismayed by a long and inglorious war, distressed by the nation’s tarnished prestige. Citizens fear unemployment and are terrified of getting sick. The ten million illegal immigrants offered as scapegoats by most of the Republicans do not seem to satisfy the voters. (The last time deportation on such a massive scale was this popular among Republicans, Abraham Lincoln was proposing that slaves be expatriated after emancipation.) The Democratic candidates, in contrast, are genuinely impressive. Though their party controls a deeply unpopular Congress, I think they have collectively harnessed enough momentum to propel the nominee into an early lead in the general election.
–Jake Auchincloss
