Prometheus 6

Bob Herbert is so on point with this

There is a surge of excitement running through Democratic voters and public officials in this election cycle that has seldom been seen in recent decades.

This is the stuff of which overconfidence is made.

Anyone who thinks the Democrats are a lock to win in November has somehow forgotten about Karl Rove, the right-wing radio network, the hanging chads of 2000, the Swift boat debacle, the intimidation of black voters in Florida, the long lines of Democratic voters standing forlornly in the rain in Ohio, and on and on.

Those who may think that a woman named Clinton or a black man named Obama will have an easy time winning the White House this year should switch to something less disorienting than whatever it is they’re smoking.

It was important for Senators Clinton and Obama to behave as they did on Thursday night because they desperately need each other. Consider two scenarios. In one, there’s a blood feud between the Clinton and Obama forces, heightening tensions among women, blacks, whites and Hispanics, while sending independents and a whole lot of Democrats scurrying to John McCain.

In the other, Mrs. Clinton or Mr. Obama wins the Democratic nomination and their forces unite enthusiastically for the general campaign. In that scenario, Senators Clinton and Obama, former President Clinton, former Senator John Edwards, Senator Edward Kennedy and others would be a formidable team barnstorming the country to drum up turnout and put the candidate over the top.

...that I'll forgive this fatuousness.

For all its flaws, the system forged in the 18th century is working remarkably well in the 21st. James Madison may never have heard of CNN or Google, but the people who walked through a cold rain to vote in South Carolina, and those who trudged through the snow in Iowa and New Hampshire, and the millions who will vote on Super Tuesday can still hear him:

“If there be a principle that ought not to be questioned within the United States, it is that every man has a right to abolish an old government and establish a new one.”