The Long Defeat

clipped from www.nytimes.com Hillary Clinton may not realize it yet, but she’s just endured one of the worst weeks of her campaign. First, Barack Obama weathered the Rev. Jeremiah Wright affair without serious damage Obama’s lawyers successfully prevented re-votes in Florida and Michigan most superdelegates have accepted Nancy Pelosi’s judgment that the winner of the elected delegates should get the nomination Hillary Clinton’s presidential prospects continue to dim No wonder the Clinton campaign feels impersonal. It’s like a machine for the production of politics. It plows ahead from event to event following its own iron logic. The only question is whether Clinton herself can step outside the apparatus long enough to turn it off and withdraw voluntarily or whether she will force the rest of her party to intervene and jam the gears.