Once our party has a nominee, anyone campaigning against that nominee is fair game.
So what should we make of this?
ABC News' Eloise Harper Reports: The press traveling with Sen. Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign received an email Thursday afternoon informing reporters they could sign up for travel through June 6 on the campaign website.
Given the speculation surrounding plausible outcomes from this Saturday's DNC Meeting and the final Democratic primaries on June 3, many confused looks passed between reporters on the back of the press bus.
When asked for comment, Clinton spokesman Jay Carson looked past Tuesday's primaries to the general election.
"There are a lot of places for us to go between June 4 and November," Carson said.
I respect Hillary Clinton. I've had a pretty high level of respect for her for over a decade and a half (about as long as I've been really following politics). I think she and Bill are brilliant figures within the party and simply didn't run a very good campaign this year.
But don't think for a minute that respect counts as an excuse for her to campaign against Obama after Tuesday--it doesn't.
Tuesday will come, and Obama is expected to state the obvious and declare victory. And he will be victorious then. He's already victorious, if we really want to get down to it: most rational people recognize what "running out the clock" looks like when they see it. His delegate lead is insurmountable. He's the nominee.
After Tuesday, the only way Hillary will be able to have any chance at capturing the nomination will be to stage a floor fight at the Convention over whatever argument seems to poll strongest for her at the time. And that, fellow Democrats, is unacceptable.
Hillary Clinton needs to leave the race with whatever modicum of grace she can find at this point. She needs to fully endorse Barack Obama, and she needs to campaign her heart out for his election.
If she leaves the race and doesn't work to ensure John McCain loses in November, I may be able to forgive her in time, and simply let her go about her business moping and sulking at having lost this time around.
But if she stays in the race and continues to campaign for the nomination after the elections are all over, it's war.
At that point, she will be a "Democrat" campaigning against our party's nominee. Like this guy:
And this one:
And at that point all bets are off.
Certainly some will argue that we should simply ignore her and act as though she's a nonentity, which is most likely what the Obama campaign will do itself and counsel others to do. But ignoring her won't make her go away. The media are going to wet themselves over the possibility of a floor fight, and they'll continue to grant airtime to Wolfson and Lanny Davis and the Clinton family, during which our Democratic nominee will be attacked by ostensible members of his own party on national television. That's worth fighting to avoid.
I'm willing to grant an appropriate grace period, though, since you can't stop a campaign bus on a dime. June 6th is next Friday--the last day Clinton is currently letting press arrange travel with the campaign for. I think that's a reasonable concession date: it gives her time to calm down her more inflamed supporters, to decide what sort of tone she wants to set for her withdrawal, and to make plans for her delegates to be released to Obama.
I've avoided writing diaries about the primaries because I hated how vituperative and divisive they all seemed to be (in terms of effect if not intent). Well, that's no longer a concern, because the primary is over, and we have selected our nominee: Senator Barack Obama.
Senator Clinton, this will not be your year to lead the Democratic Party. Your choices are now 1) follow, or 2) get out of the way. Because once next week is over, if you're still trying to stop our nominee's momentum, then, though it hurts to say this, the gloves will have to come off.