Republicans For The Clintons

Bulldog Pundit is candid enough about the Limbaugh strategy:

Yes, I’ve considered the fact that whomever the Democrat nominee is will become the next President.  I won’t be voting for either of them in November (I plan to switch back to being a Republican right after the primary), but if one of them does win, I’d rather it be Hillary that Barack Obama.

And no, I won’t feel the least bit “dirty” by voting for Hillary. Given the strategy, I’d feel “dirty” if I didn’t do it.

The race-baiting will be hyped to the rafters by the partisan right. Reynolds, Kaus, Hannity, Coulter, Limbaugh: they will all be throwing all they can at Obama as a black boogeyman in the next few weeks, and eager to keep Clinton in the game. Beating a Clinton with black and young voters deserting the system en masse this fall will be relatively easy. And so using Jeremiah Wright against Obama is critical now, under the cover of the Clinton campaign.

I should add that the Wright issue is not out of bounds. It was always there; it is still there. Obama has addressed it and has to re-address it. You will see more of Wright on Fox News in the coming months than you will John Gibson. But the glee with which the partisan right is trying to conflate the racism of Wright with the post-racial politics of Obama is a depressing spectacle. I think they understand that keeping this country divided by racial suspicion is in their interests. Obama threatens that model. He has to find a way to get through this. He can't be adding to the fray. He needs to give another speech - a big speech - about the need for America to overcome these feelings. He needs to pivot off this campaign. And get off defense - which he cannot win - and onto offense, with a positive, constructive, multiracial message that uses today's toxic headlines for chart a less toxic path to a strong showing in Pennsylvania and North Carolina.