Democrats doing what they do best: shooting themselves in the foot.

The more Hillary attacks Obama on bullshit "issues" like his pastor, that he doesn't always wear an American flag lapel pin, or that he referred to a certain demographic as bitter*, the more I want to kick her out.

*btw: wasn't she attacked in 1992, as an anti-family sorceress for saying she didn't want to stay at home and bake cookies? heaven forbid a candidate doesn't plot every word every now and then!

There are plenty of real issues and policy proposals she could go after him on, and he her, but instead her campaign focuses on the petty. Seriously? Are we 13? If she gets the nomination, I'll be behind her. I do think she'd make a better president than McCain and any other Republican currently serving anywhere. Not that intra-party campaigns have to be simpering and sweet, but her attacks on Obama have seemed as shallow as the attacks that will come his way from the Republicans and the attacks that the Republicans have hurled her way through the years. (Maybe this is a case of the bullied becoming the bully.)

Aside from my deep displeasure at the prospect of yet another White House dynasty on the rise, I guess this really all goes back to me feeling betrayed by her regarding the Iraq war. I've been watching her for the past 8 years, because I have been curious if she would make this run. And I've been disappointed. Until 2007, she had not put enough daylight between her and Spanky for my taste - more rhetorically than legislatively, I believe. And I was particularly upset that she joined the war bandwagon in '02. Even with all the chest pounding and appeals in 2002, I smelled a rat. (Maybe because I was one of the 30% of Americans who realized that Baghdad was not in Afghanistan and that al Quaeda was not the Iraqi Army.) At least Edwards recanted his vote. I was impressed by that. I liked Hillary in the 90s - frankly, I still like her and look up to her - but she just has not impressed me as a Democratic senator during one of the most embarrassing and mismanaged administrations in my short life, if not in American history.

I also wish she would come the realization that plenty of us who have grown up among the "bitter" voters outside the iron-clad ideological bubbles of the Metro East Coast Corridor, LA and San Francisco have: she will not win. She may win against the corpses of Benedict Arnold or Adolf Hitler, but that's about it. If she gets the nomination, she'll have a strong showing against McCain because Dems are tired enough of Bush, but she will not win. She is deeply and desperately hated out in the middle. Both Clintons draw the same ire in some parts of this country as W does here on the East Coast. She's hated by Democratic women, even: she didn't ditch Bill when he publicly humiliated her with the Lewinski scandal, so she's beneath their contempt. (Granted had she divorced him, the right would've slayed her for being a wicked wife breaking her vows, so she really couldn't have won either way; but don't tell that to my mom.) The disdain for her among even moderates living in Red areas is so thick and unmovable as to make molasses look more fluid than water.

Hillary has good ideas. Obama has good ideas. Either will make a good president. But Obama has broader appeal and more successfully articulates what's been on my mind than she does, so for me, he's the man. The Democratic nominee will be crucified on the way to the White House this year simply because he or she will not be the traditional white man. Expect swiftboating the likes of which will make Kerry's attacks look like a booze cruise. Hillary may personally withstand slings and arrows well, but I think Obama will withstand them better politically.

In the meantime, if the Dems keep this up, the Republicans may not need to prep the crown of thorns for the nominee. Democrats are doing what they do best: starting of strong only to taper into a disorganized mess that practically begs voters to seek refuge in the Republican nominees.