Post-Election Thoughts

Chris Bowers at OpenLeft reflects on the March 4th Democratic primaries. Although the article covers several different interesting aspects of the analysis of the state of the race, I found this section particularly interesting:

I think the most telling rhetorical moment of the night was when, during Clinton's speech, her supporters started chanting "Yes, She Will," or something to that effect. Whatever it was, it was directly aimed not just as Barack Obama, but at Barack Obama supporters. I can't remember something like that ever happening before. Were they mainly cheering for Clinton, or antagonizing Obama supporters? Hard to tell. You could feel their disgust with Obama supporters, which certainly is a sign that Clinton supporters don't care how nasty her campaign might get against Obama. And, if what I see in the blogosphere is any indication, for many Obama supporters the feeling is more than mutual. If Obama decided to retaliate in kind, I doubt his supporters will mind. This could get really, really ugly.

The fact that the race will continue, and that the press will continue to pay attention to Obama and Clinton is, in my opinion, good for the Democrats. To the extent that they spend time talking themselves up and not talking their Democratic opponent down, Clinton and Obama can continue to make an effective case for Democratic control of the executive in the fall. There are two main things that can hurt Democratic chances in the general election, in my opinion. If either of the candidates do anymore of this "John McCain has a lifetime of experience" crap, it'll hurt us in the fall (regardless who is the eventual nominee) by giving Republicans something to squawk about. If the supporters of these two candidates can't manage to keep their eyes on the prize, and to quit tearing each other down, it'll hurt us in the fall, because the negative feelings felt by Clinton supporters and Obama supporters towards the other candidates will become calcified by repitition and escalation.