Dem establishment rejecting Hillary

Rich Lowry:

Hillary Clinton ceased to be the Democratic front-runner weeks ago, humiliatingly enough for her formerly inevitable campaign. But it was only after her drubbing in the Wisconsin primary that she became an inconvenience, the superfluous woman of Democratic politics.

Among elected Democrats and the press, there is a palpable impatience with Hillary’s continued presence in the race: Won’t this lady ever leave so we can consummate our love affair with Barack Obama?

Hillary’s bulwark was to be the Democratic establishment, but here was the party’s immediate past presidential nominee, John Kerry, an Obama supporter, shooing her off the stage. On Sunday, he said she didn’t just have to win Texas and Ohio, but win them by large margins — setting a nearly impossible standard.

Here was Bill Richardson — who had two Cabinet posts in the Clinton administration and spent most of his own aborted presidential campaign sucking up to Hillary in hopes of being selected her vice-presidential nominee — saying that whoever has the most pledged delegates after Texas and Ohio should be the nominee. He knows — and everyone knows that he knows — that Obama will still be leading in pledged delegates no matter what.

Here was the Democratic chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Jay Rockefeller, endorsing Obama just as Hillary launched her “3 A.M.” advertisement, arguing the Illinois senator is too dangerously inexperienced to be trusted in the White House in a national-security crisis. Rockefeller called Obama “the most qualified person — Democrat or Republican — to lead our country in the face of enormous challenges.”

Usually, it’s the frontrunner in any nomination contest who suffers the excoriating attention of the press. In October, in the famous “pile on” debate in Philadelphia, NBC moderators Tim Russert and Brian Williams teamed up with her rivals to bludgeon Hillary for two hours. At last week’s debate in Cleveland, with Obama sailing after 11 straight victories, Russert and Williams were still noticeably tougher on Hillary, even as she flailed against the new frontrunner.

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Veteran Newsweek writer Jonathan Alter captured the spirit in a column calling on her to drop out before Texas and Ohio. She could “go down classy, with a real chance of redemption.” Nothing would so suit her, in other words, like being out of the way.

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The Democrats are treating Hillary like an ex wife who want leave. They are doing themselves no favor by not subjecting Obama to the scrutiny they have given her. They made the same mistake in 2004 when they ignored Kerry's obvious weakness on national security and the anger he had generated among Vietnam vets with his slander and smear of the troops in that war. It came back to bite Kerry big time and he was as unprepared for it as the media was.

They both still whine about the Swift Vets, but the media has to ask itself why it did not contact these people and find out their story before the ads ran. They will be asking similar questions as Obama's weaknesses are revealed after it is too late.