A Bad Candidate

What many of us saw and have been saying for a long time now has become painfully and more broadly obvious. We have chosen a bad candidate.

The old Democratic Party ("old" meaning the party of the past generation, the post-Vietnam era) is holding on, via its last landlords (Dean, Pelosi, Brazile, et al.), and selecting a presidential candidate who presents less of a challenge to its underlying mindset, worldview and self-conception. He may wind up winning the election, because the field is so heavily slanted in the Dems' favor. But he may lose -- and there is a case to be made that it would be good for the Party if that happens. If one believes that we need to clear out the Anti-Power Party aparatchiks -- those who would rather lose than win, because winning means you have to shoulder responsibility -- then making it painfully apparent that the path to victory means embracing that responsibility would make sense.

Obviously, one cannot embrace that outcome with enthusiasm. Perhaps one cannot embrace it at all. But no matter where one comes down on the particular question of whom to vote for -- or whether to abstain in the presidential race -- the weakness, lack of principle, general crappiness of the Obama phenomenon is pretty hard to avoid, for thinking Dems.

P.S., I may be scarce in these parts for the next couple of weeks. And by then, the whole sorry saga will probably be over. Sadder and wiser times ahead...