I've noticed a shift in rhetoric on the Republican side. Perhaps that's my imagination working overtime, but it appears to me that while they're in the midst of arguing over who has the most bone fide conservative credentials and throwing each other under the bus, they've also begun to turn their attention to the task of holding the White House against what is likely to be -- barring unforseen events -- massive Democratic voter turnout. It's time to make a deal and begin the destruction of John McCain's political career.
The deal I have in mind is pretty simple, actually: John Edwards endorses an Obama/Clinton ticket that the candidates have already agreed to.
None of the parties involved are likely to be entirely happy with that, but it's a workable deal. Edwards gets a future cabinet post and can work on his issues while waiting for 2012 or beyond. Obama gets a VP on the ticket who defuses the "experience" argument and picks up her ability to land older Democrats, Latinos, women and possibly NY and CA in the general. Clinton gets into the White House, albeit not at the top of the ticket but it beats standing outside looking in, via Obama's appeal to progressives, youth, African-Americans and everyone caught up in the growing mythos, and his ability to possibly win previously-red states in the general. Oh, and his funding, which apparently is going through the roof.
This puts an end to the internecine struggle and allows everyone to focus on the real battle -- which, by the way, includes not just winning the White House, but generating a coat tail effect large enough to sweep others into office. And winning by a large enough margin that it's not contested (although that now seems inevitable given the abysmally poor way elections are run -- more on that in other entry).
The polls indicate that (depending on whose numbers you want to believe) something like 3/4 of Democrats are fine with either of these two candidates. And Democrats are turning out in record numbers across the country. Leveraging both of those rather than continuing to expend rhetorical, financial and other resources futilely struggling to fight against them would generate tremendous momentum. And it would do so now rather than after the Republicans have had time to sort things out and somehow make nice long enough to put together a ticket.
It also would serve another political function: it gives them more than one target. Either Obama or Clinton running with anyone else will be the focus of attacks based on experience, record, racism, sexism (those latter two cloaked of course), etc. Oh, those attacks will still happen alright, but it will tougher to make them count when one of the many instant rebuttals (besides "you're a bigoted moron") is "but Clinton/Obama is/isn't".
And there's one more reason that has nothing to do with this big of self-indulgent political chicanery. Tip back your chair and just think for moment what it would be like...to watch Hillary and Barack, Barack and Hillary, it doesn't really matter...a woman and a black man, historically (and often still) discriminated against, demeaned, insulted, scorned, degraded, every possible insult to body and mind that you can imagine...to watch them stand together at the pinnacle. What an incredible symbol, what a signal to the rest of the world that maybe, just maybe, we as a nation are ready to toss our biases and prejudices and obsolete notions into the dustbin of history and move forward as one. Yeah, I know -- idealistic ranting unleavened by political common sense. But I spend 23 hours and 55 minutes a day as a confirmed cynic, so please forgive me that momentary lapse of reason, and pardon the tears in my eyes as I think of all the women, all the blacks, who have clawed their way upward for generations against incredible odds and through repeated heartbreak -- and how very much this would mean not just to them, but to all of us if we could finally take a step toward healing those old wounds.
If we are very, very lucky then one day in the distant future it will only be noted that they took office. And their race and gender will be considered worthy only of footnotes.