Missing the Boat

"I wonder if McCain's emergence as the alternative hasn't tilted things further in Obama's favor. The Democrats are now up against a candidate who can appeal to the independent center. To go back to polarizing base politics is to go back to the era of Rove."

Marc Ambinder: "The departure was anti-climactic. [Clinton campaign manager Patti] Solis Doyle, whose [service] to Clinton began in 1992, had survived three separate coup attempts, the latest one being shortly after Iowa, when Clinton considered asking Williams to assume the title of 'campaign coordinator.' Twice, advisers to Bill Clinton have tried to oust her -- one in January, before the campaign officially began, and once in April, after Barack Obama raised more money than the vaunted Clinton machine. . . .

"People familiar with the decision cited as a factor that Solis Doyle has very young children and did not expect the active phase of the primary campaign to last this long, and that she had always anticipated transitioning to a different role in the spring. She was dead tired and missed her family."

The Democratic race may seem neck and neck, but Peggy Noonan says a different reality is unfolding before our eyes:

"Something is happening. Mrs. Clinton is losing this thing. It's not one big primary, it's a rolling loss, a daily one, an inch-by-inch deflation. The trends and indices are not in her favor. She is having trouble raising big money, she's funding her campaign with her own wealth, her moral standing within her own party and among her own followers has been dragged down, and the legacy of Clintonism tarnished by what Bill Clinton did in South Carolina. Unfavorable primaries lie ahead. She doesn't have the excitement, the great whoosh of feeling that accompanies a winning campaign. The guy from Chicago who was unknown a year ago continues to gain purchase, to move forward. For a soft little innocent, he's played a tough and knowing inside/outside game. . . .

"Political professionals are leery of saying, publicly, that she is losing, because they said it before New Hampshire and turned out to be wrong. Some of them signaled their personal weariness with Clintonism at that time, and fear now, as they report, to look as if they are carrying an agenda. One part of the Clinton mystique maintains: Deep down journalists think she's a political Rasputin who will not be dispatched . . .

"The Democrats have it exactly wrong. Hillary is the easier candidate, Mr. Obama the tougher. Hillary brings negative; it's fair to hit her back with negative. Mr. Obama brings hope, and speaks of a better way. He's not Bambi, he's bulletproof."

Does the MSM let President Bush get away with saying this, about Obama, to Fox News?

"I certainly don't know what he believes in. The only foreign policy thing I remember he said was he's going to attack Pakistan and embrace Ahmadinejad."

Substituting "embrace" for "negotiating" with Iran's leader might fall within the bounds of political rhetoric. But the "attack Pakistan" part has to do with striking bin Laden if necessary without the regime's approval. Isn't that a pretty big presidential distortion?

I've always wondered where commentators get off telling candidates to get out, but Weekly Standard blogger Richelieu has a message for Mike:

"The Huck should take a lesson from Mitt Romney's classy performance yesterday and fold up his medicine show. Romney did a lot today to show the country and the party the classy and principled Mitt Romney that his friends have known for years. (One tribute to the guy is that everybody who works for him loves him.) It was the right thing to do and Mitt deserves the credit he'll get for it. Meanwhile it is hard to find a purpose in Huckabee trying to run much longer. The delegate math is even harder for him than it was for Romney. The Huck hasn't won a primary outside the south. He has no money. Sure, he can continue to plug along and almost certainly lose DC, VA, and MD next week, but to what purpose?"