It's kind of fascinating watching the media lose its fascination with Clinton. A lot of tugging on ropes is taking place at the end of this "important" primary week as reporters and commentators bring the Clinton balloon down to earth.
Paul Krugman is grousing that Obama is risks Democratic party unity by having the gall to win in North Carolina and (let's face it) Indiana and appears to have sewn up the party nomination which he now risks "squandering."
...The Democratic Party hasn’t enjoyed this favorable a political environment since 1964. Robert Erikson, a political scientist at Columbia, tells me: “It would be difficult to find any serious indicator that does not point to a Democratic victory in 2008.”
But:
There’s just one thing that should give Democrats pause — but it’s a big one: the fight for the nomination has divided the party along class and race lines in a way that I believe is unprecedented, at least in modern times.
No mention of the Clintons' now obviously racist campaigning, nor of the stats in Indiana showing Obama's increasing support across class and race lines -- nor any sign of relief on Krugman's part that we may be done with a candidate whose campaign came to depend on divisiveness and those elusive "patterns." The Times editorial board, having endorsed Clinton months ago, now wants her gone.
We believe it is her right to stay in the fight and challenge Senator Barack Obama as long as she has the desire and the means to do so.... We believe just as strongly that Mrs. Clinton will be making a terrible mistake — for herself, her party and for the nation — if she continues to press her candidacy through negative campaigning with disturbing racial undertones. ...We believe it would also be a terrible mistake if she launches a fight over the disqualified delegations from Florida and Michigan.
Eugene Robinson, at the Washington Post, takes her on too.
...She should be persuaded to quit now, rather than later, before her majestic sense of entitlement splits the party along racial lines. ...Here's what she's really saying to party leaders: There's no way that white people are going to vote for the black guy. Come November, you'll be sorry.
