In spite of the pointless, inane intra-party squabbling which has consumed the irreplaceable first months of this year, until this morning I was convinced that even the Democratic party was incapable of kicking away THIS election.  Even we, with our legendary pedalian marksmanship, should be able to beat a GOP saddled with the least popular president in US history, a disastrous war, and a looming economic disaster.  Shouldn't we?  Sure we should.
Then I read the latest whiny rant to make the front page at TPM, and it started to sink in:  there are plenty of Democrats -- lots and lots of Democrats, on both sides of the great divide -- who really, really don't understand what's going on in this election.
The 2008 Presidential election is NOT about whether Hillary's widdle feelings are hurt because the country seems to be rejecting her kind offer to serve as president.  It's NOT about whether Hillary has been mean to Barack.  It's not about the bad, bad things Barack's preacher said in July, or about where Hillary was on Stained Blue Dress day.  It's not even about Change, or Experience, or Leadership, or any other focus-group word you can think of.  This election is entirely about whether we can elect a President who is capable of undoing the fundamental, critical damage George W. Bush has done to the Republic.  That's all it's about.
John McCain can't do it, no matter how fine a fellow he might be.  It might have been possible to treat the problem from within the Republican party, in a Nixon-goes-to-China sort of way; but McCain has sold too much of whatever reformist instinct he might have had in order to make himself marginally acceptable to the base.  Once in the Oval Office, he'll be in thrall to the people who got us where we are now.  Any solution to the civic crisis we find ourselves in requires, God help us, a Democratic president.
I have my own opinion about which Democratic candidate is more likely to reign in our pretensions to empire, disolve the unitary executive and restore the rule of law; but the fact is that either remaining candidate MIGHT do it, and COULD be pressured to do it by the people who elect him or her.  If they don't get the chance, eight more years of Republican rule  will hard-bake the changes we've suffered into our system of government.  And that, folks, will be that.
Undoing the damage will be difficult; but the first step, electing a Democratic president, should have been easy.  It seems, though, that we remain the Peter Pan Party of American politics, refusing to grow up even when faced with disaster.  A few months ago, we seemed as united as it was possible to be and remain Democrats; and the Republicans seemed to be filling the take-my-ball-and-go-home role.  We've regressed horribly; faster than I would have though possible.  We can stop, take a deep breath, and set ourselves right, or we can let this opportunity pass.  If we do the latter, our grandchildren will be able to look back at our petulant, ridiculous blog posts -- assuming they can still afford computers -- and wonder what the hell we were thinking.