Whose brilliant idea was it to leave six weeks open before the Pennsylvania primary?Probably not Dean's personally, but as the genius who drew up the maddening system whereby Clinton and Obama are heading to a knife edged convention irrespective of who actually votes for them … well thanks a lot, Howard. Relentlessly proportional representation sounds good on paper but is one of the best known recipes for a political fudge wherever it's put into practice. John Kerry's deeply faulty coronation so soon in 2004 before Edwards' star had come to shine was wrong as well, but it was a poor lesson to shape the future. 2008 and 2004 are so different politically, yet here we are enduring an overreaction to mistakes long forgotten and even less relevant.
Something due to be knocked out at Denver will be, I sincerely hope, a correction to the primaries. It doesn't have to be a return to the broken dynamic of New Hampshire or Bust, but it sure had better not remain like this. McCain's elegant stroll to a convincing nomination might not be enough all by itself to level up the precarious slope the last national midterms in 2006 exposed under this trailing president; but it's certainly become a factor thanks to the Byzantine procedure still rumbling on far from conclusion among his competitors.
Denver doesn't even happen until late August. What's the betting both candidates are still running by then? What a bitter denouement for what had been until Super Tuesday the most lively and uplifting contest in a generation.
