I used to think we had two great candidates

At one time I was more or less on the fence between Cinton and Obama. At one time I thought that that they would both make solid general election candidates and presidents. I almost voted for John Edwards in the California primary even though he had already dropped out - that's how much I thought Clinton and Obama were both pretty a-ok.

But now, I've come to the reluctant conclusion that Hillary is probably a complete disaster.

Who in their right mind, committed to a Democratic victory, would do, or allow her campaign to do, the things that have been done by the Clinton side in the past few weeks? Who in their right mind, committed to a Democratic victory, would feed John McCain golden sound bites and video clips to be used against a Democrat in the general election? Who in their right mind, committed to a Democratic victory, would consistently belittle large geographic swaths of the country, and, more importantly, necessary demographics of the Democratic coalition?

Hillary said twice in the past week that both she and McCain have proven they are "ready to lead," but Obama has "just has a speech." Way to make sure you star in John McCain's general election ads! Her campaign has constantly stated that the states that voted for Obama are 'not significant', and people who vote for Obama in primaries and caucuses "need feeling, not a president." The latest and greatest outrage is that her campaign actually used the "latte sipper" epithet in reference to Obama supporters .

Clinton's defenders believe that this is all 'just politics' and that the Democratic candidate, whoever it may be, will have to do it so we better get used to it. That may actually be true. But my beef with this is not that it is politics, it is that it is poor politics.

It is a recipie for Democratic defeat!

The current Democratic coalition consists, in a broad generalization, of:

1) Working and middle class families who still vote their economic interests 2) Seniors who still vote their economic interests
3) Minorities
4) Rich liberals (eg. Hollywood)
5) Educated liberals / knowledge economy types
6) New voters

We can't win unless we have all of these groups on board, both with votes and contributions. By insulting Obama supporters, and especially insulting people in groups 5 and 6, her campaign is making Democratic defeat much more likely.

Worst of all, they are perpetuating the wedge that conservatives have used to divide Democrats for 35 years now! The working class against the professors - Karl Rove must be rubbing one out when he hears this stuff from an actual Democrat!

People have argued that it is elements of her campaign saying some of these things, and not Hillary herself. But guess what, if that's true and she can't keep her campaign from saying godawful stupid self-defeating things over and over, then we have a problem just as big. And the praising of McCain over Obama, that was definitely from Hillary herself.

So I am reluctantly forced to conclude that Hillary will do anything to win the primary, even if it makes Democratic defeat in November, whoever the nominee is, much more likely. And that is very unacceptable.

I used to like Hillary Clinton. She has had a great career, standing up for children and then being a new kind of first lady. I have always thought that she received such an unfair shake with all of the right wing vitriol over the years. But now she has worked hard to prove that she is absolutely unfit to be the Democratic nominee.