Whoever wins the nomination will now be open to Republican attacks. If it is Obama, the GOP will claim that anything they say about his religion, his youth, or his race is no worse than what Senator Clinton’s campaign did back in the primaries. If Clinton is the nominee, expect to hear an endless series of attacks on her for her racist style of campaigning. In short it’s a no win situation for the Democratic Party, one they should never have allowed to happen. Sadly, it’s probably too late now to prevent any further damage to the candidates themselves, and to the party brand in November. And you can bet this will affect other races down ticket, particularly if Senator Clinton wins. Already many African American bloggers are saying that Clinton has lost a lot of support in the the black community. The Republicans won’t need to suppress the black vote all that much if many of them decide to stay home come the Fall because of what is being done to Obama now.

And that would be the real tragedy of the Clinton/Obama race wars.

Since StevenD posted this comment, both the Clinton and Obama campaigns have offered to tone it down. As far as I’m concerned, that can’t happen soon enough or fast enough. But I fear the damage has already been done to both candidates, and whomever wins the nomination.

At the end of 2005, a tally was done of the number of diaries, and the diarists whose diaries made the Recommended List, which only holds 8 diaries at a time and requires a very high number of recommendations to get there. Out of nearly 12,000 diarists, I ranked #2, behind the brainy Parisian energy and finance expert, Jerome A Paris.

But, truth be told, by the end of 2005, I’d learned what I could write that would guarantee my placement in the recommended list. At the time, I wrote story after story about torture, Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib, Bucca, extraordinary rendition. It was a cause for me. From time to time, I ventured beyond. One weekend, I wrote a diary about a Democratic candidate for Congress who personally was opposed to abortion but who supported a woman’s right to choose. I thought him an example of “big tent” Democratic politics. As long as he wouldn’t vote to deny a woman’s right to choose, I had no problem with his personal view of abortion. I was viciously attacked. There is, undeniably, a rigidity and extremism in far left politics just as there is in far right politics. I want nothing to do with either extreme. They both talk like Jay. And they make their attacks personal, without any self-awareness that 1) they are not being rational and 2) they are harming their own POV.

But, Reagan — just like George W. Bush — “was astonishingly successful in his plan to paralyze the federal government.”

In the long term , this will be the tragedy of GWB reign of destruction. I was working for a fed agency targeted by the Reagan minions in 1981. They did a lot of damage for about two years. But when RR’s popularity waned a bit and after the 1982 elections they dialed back somewhat their assault on Federal Agencies. GWB, on the other hand, has gone full bore for 8 years to corrupt and disable our federal government. It will take decades to fix.

Hey! I’m just saying…

ultimately though, the real issue for meaningful change is the size of the congressional majority. that is key. the only upside to obama is that because of his conservative appeal, we could possibly usher in a more solid congressional majority. the republicans will try to play up the fear of socialism at the hands of an unrestrained democratically controlled federal government in their desperate effort to retain whatever seats in congress they are can. of course if that majority exhibits the same failure to grasp the political reality of the past thirty years, then what’s the use? anyway, perhaps the moderate swing voters see some reassurance that obama will constrict the overwhelming democratic majorities that seem likely.

B) I believe the phrase “all hat, and no cattle” applies to both George W. Bush and to Barack Obama, with the one difference being that under George W. Bush’s hat there ain’t no brain. Obama is definitely more intelligent than Little Georgie and an exceptional orator, but he reminds me too much of Joe Lieberman, whom I’ve never really trusted. And I really doubt that an Obama presidency would really benefit Black Americans, especially since, as you said, he seems to like Republican economic policies a whole lot (like Lieberman).

Either Clinton or Edwards would make a good president, one with the stamina and integrity to try and undo all the damage the worst administration in American history has done to our nation. If either of them were to succeed, then they’d be a great president, because our nation faces as dire a situation as FDR faced, and successfully overcame, in the 1930s and 1940s.

But I still want to know which Democratic Party presidential candidate will not only clean up the Bush/Cheney mess, but also will promise to hold accountable, in one way or another, all those responsible. If not held responsible and somehow censured, most of these incompetent cretins will show up again just like they did following the criminal Nixon administration and criminal Reagan administration and the criminal George H.W. Bush administration. These guys keep crawling out of the woodwork like rats.