One could imagine internal or external events that might make the popular leader substantially less tenable as a nominee; in that case, the superdelegates are there to step in. But there appears to be no such need this season, as we have two strong, popular candidates.

As for your need to take a reductionist shot at the kind of candidate Obama is running as in order to make a point about how Clinton should have ran her campaign, well, let’s just say it’s of a piece as to your favorite in this race.

to Clintonians: she brought up cognitive dissonance in an interview the other day! do you realize that her slow and shifty rebuttals might well be a part of premeditated manipulating strategy?…

to Republicans: the third man comes out clean in a sewage throwing contest.

Trust me, if it happens, my vote (and millions of votes like mine) are gone. We will stay home in November and be finished with politics for a good long time. We aren’t cynical yet, but we will be if you screw us over like that.

I am absolutely with Jimmy…Let’s not attack one another over this, when the real target is John McCain. Don’t abandon the goal to overturning the White House, and effecting change just based on the name of the Democrat running for the job. We are, and need to remain, in this together! Passion is great, just keep it focused on the big picture, and we can’t lose in November.

Hillary Clinton has nearly lost this primary for several reasons. First, as Kirk said, she’s run a terrible campaign. She went into the primaries thinking she was the presumptive nominee and when it turned out she would actually have some competition she didn’t rethink her strategy. Instead, she just kept on believing she would be the nominee, and when it finally dawned on her that she would have to fight, like any cadidate, it was too late.

Second, even as an Obama supporter I didn’t like his responses to the Jeremiah Wright brouhaha and his response to Clinton after the “bitter” Pennsylvanias comment was ill-chosen. However, both of those instances were blow out of the proportion, esepcially the “bitter” comment. Clinton has sunk to the level of the very right-wing machine she criticized during her husband’s administration. That doesn’t help the party.

Third, there is an impression –right or wrong — that Clinton wants this nomination so much that she will make it damn difficult for Obama to win in November if he’s the party’s nominee. You see that in some of her unnecessary attacks and you see that in her supporters demanding money back from the DNC. She is turning people off to the whole elction proces and that will not help Obama OR her.

Fourth, people who support Obama, myself included, are not raving Clinton-haters. That whole charge is immature and a little pathetic. Sure, there are some Obama supporters out there who say unkind things about Hillary Clinton, but that same is true of Clinton supporters about Obama.

Finally, everyone needs to get their collective heads out of their collective rear ends and remember what the real point of this election is supposed to be: defeating John McCain. If somehow Hillary Clinton turns out to be the nominee I will gladly cast my vote for her. Will Clinton supporters do the same for Obama? Increasingly, I get the impression they won’t and that will be a sad day for this country.

This part about Clinton running as a woman may be the first thing you have said about this campaign that makes sense. No matter which candidate you back, I think it’s safe to say that Clinton has run a terrible campaign. It had a faulty strategy, was badly managed, and her choices in personnel were awful. That alone makes me wonder whether she is fit to run the country.

How about this proposal: We “Obamabots” won’t say a peep about superdelegates if Clinton supporters pipe down about caucuses being worthless. Both aspects are pretty silly and their roles should be reduced, if not eliminated, in future campaigns. But both candidates knew the rules going in and neither should complain if they’re shafted because of them. That said, it’s wholly preposterous to suggest that caucuses should somehow be discounted or overruled just because Clinton couldn’t organize people under 50 to care about her campaign. The rules were clear and she ran a shoddy campaign, period.

It’s a wise system — except when it’s a clean two-candidate race, in which case that aristocratic system has no place in a democracy.