Forgotten but not gone

As Hillary Clinton plays out the string, she becomes increasingly tiresome. Her campaign's repeated attempts to change the goalposts are transparently silly. Her late discovery of sexism in the campaign is merely desperate. And her threat to take the issue of the Florida and Michigan delegates to the floor of the convention is a study in hypocrisy that only underlines why--although they agree on so much--she and Barack Obama are so far apart in stature and their approach to governing.

(As Keith Olbermann pointed out last night, four years ago, when Michigan Democrats threatened to jump the primary gun, then-Democratic National Chairman Terry McAuliffe (now a top-ranking Clinton advisor and spokesperson) told Sen. Carl Levin, "the only way you'll see the convention is on television." Terry's singing a very different tune today.)

The bright side of this depressing, prolonged endgame is that it will undoubtedly make it easier for many who supported Hillary to switch to Obama without guilt. Indeed, by the time Election Day comes around in November, I suspect that many of them will find themselves exhilarated by the chance to cast a ballot for him.