Centerfield

It's not MY circular firing squad! I'm just reporting in depth. Oh, wait, the card in my wallet says "Democrat" this year. Maybe in some sense it is mine.

In any case, the split in the party will only get worse the longer this drags on, and the DNC made this mess for itself. Both FL and MI appear to have turned down do-overs, which means the self-inflicted wound will continue to fester. If do-overs are out, their choices are getting slim.

John McCain's best friend right now is the attacking Hillary. That said, I think that it is perfectly reasonable for Hillary to stay in the race. But she should stay within the bounds of reasonableness, as her only real chance to win is for Obama to implode. In my view, she is now in a position of the Miss America runnerup who is ready to step in if Miss America has a problem with recently exposed nude photo shoots. With that caveat, Hillary should change her tone and be civil for the sake of the party. Ain't going to happen, though.

As one who rejects the idea that you have to hate one in order to support the other, I find this whole mess disturbing. I'm not predicting doom just yet, but this combined with the botched laboratory accident that the DNC has unleashed, may do real harm to our chances.

Oh, wait, the card in my wallet says "Democrat" this year. Maybe in some sense it is mine.

Really? Is there something you need to explain to us, Tully?

I've explained it before, in public even, though I've said forever I'm not a party animal. To have any meaningful vote at all in my districts' state primaries, I have to be a registered Democrat for at least one day every two years. If you think this means I live in state districts where a Republican can't possibly win, you'd be correct*. You win these districts in the primaries, not the general. The competition for the Dem ballot slots is thus always fierce, and I do my best to help get the best candidate on the ballot. Or at least keep the worst ones off.

My wife and I also change parties now and then for "strategic voting" purposes. We just have to remember to re-register at the right times to make our votes actually count.

[*--Given the Republicans they generally run in these districts, it's not much loss that they don't stand a chance. If the districts were competitive, we'd maybe get better people running. But they're not.]