In the Arena

The Puerto Rico Primary

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San Juan

A Stockdale moment: What am I doing here? (Answer: I’m joining the Clinton traveling press for the last day of campaigning in South Dakota tomorrow.) But, really, what are we doing here? The Puerto Rico “primary” is a crypto-democratic act: We are selecting delegates who will be able to vote at the Democratic Convention even though they won’t be able to vote in the general. At last, a political event even more ridiculous than the Iowa Republican straw poll–at least, Iowans can vote in November.

And yet, there’s Terry McAuliffe bloviating on CNN about how this adds to Clinton’s popular vote “victory”–a victory only if you count states that violated party rules (Florida), didn’t have Obama’s name on the ballot (Michigan) or aren’t even states (Puerto Rico).

This sort of thing is just plain annoying, and divisive. The impotent ferocity of the Clinton campaign over the past month has done neither herself or Barack Obama much good. I suspect the Clinton campaign will be over in a matter of days….and then, I believe, the onus will be on Clinton to initiate the reconciliation process. More on that later…