Hillary Clinton (speaking earlier today in Greensburg, Pennsylvania): “I think that what we have to wait and see is what happens in the next three months. There’s been a lot of talk about what if, what if, what if. Let’s wait until we get some facts…over the next months millions of people are going to vote. And we should wait and see the outcome of those votes.”
N.Y. Times columnist David Brooks (in a 3.25 column called “The Long Defeat”): “Last week, an important Clinton adviser told Politico‘s Jim VandeHei and Mike Allen that Clinton had no more than a 10 percent chance of getting the nomination. Now, she’s probably down to a 5 percent chance.
“Five percent.
“Let’s take a look at what she’s going to put her party through for the sake of that 5 percent chance: The Democratic Party is probably going to have to endure another three months of daily sniping. For another three months, we’ll have the Carvilles likening the Obamaites to Judas and former generals accusing Clintonites of McCarthyism. For three months, we’ll have the daily round of r√É∆í√Ǭ©sum√É∆í√Ǭ© padding and sulfurous conference calls. We’ll have campaign aides blurting ‘blue dress’ and only-because-he’s-black references as they let slip their private contempt.
“For three more months (maybe more!) the campaign will proceed along in its Verdun-like pattern. There will be a steady rifle fire of character assassination from the underlings, interrupted by the occasional firestorm of artillery when the contest touches upon race, gender or patriotism. The policy debates between the two have been long exhausted, so the only way to get the public really engaged is by poking some raw national wound.
“For the sake of that 5 percent, this will be the sourest spring.”