Democrats 'losers' in Hillary win?

Adam Nagourney:

The Democratic Party may prove to have been the real loser in the Pennsylvania primary on Tuesday.

Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York defeated Senator Barack Obama of Illinois by enough of a margin to continue a battle that Democrats increasingly believe is undermining their effort to unify the party and prepare for the general election against Senator John McCain of Arizona.

That worry was confirmed in exit polls that again highlighted the racial, economic, gender and values divisions in the party that Republicans would no doubt try to exploit if Mr. Obama won the nomination.

To take one example, only 50 percent of Democratic Catholic voters who attend church weekly said they would vote for Mr. Obama in a general election; 25 percent said would vote for Mr. McCain.

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The Democratic Party, so energized and optimistic just a few months ago, thus finds itself in a position few would have expected: a nomination battle unresolved, with two candidates engaged in increasingly damaging attacks. At a time when the Democratic Party would dearly like to turn its attention to Mr. McCain, it now faces at least two more weeks of campaigning — and perhaps considerably more — risking continued damage to the images of both Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Obama.

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I think those Catholic voters would still know what Obama's stance is on abortion if Hillary was not in the race and to the extent that it is an important issue for them they would have gone with McCain anyway, the way many did with Bush in the last two elections. The Democrat party has basically written off these voters with their abortion stance.

I also disagree with the premise that the campaign is damaging them for the general election. All the damaging attacks would have come out eventually and if one of them had it wrapped up, they may have been as unprepared for the attack as John Kerry was on his abysmal insults to Vietnam Vets, that the media did not think was an issue and tried to discount even when it was brought to their attention by the Swift vets.

Democrats can fool themselves into thinking that the Willie Horton ad was unfair, but if it mattered to voters, it was not unfair. The same is true of the Swift vet ads. All they really did was remind people what a jerk Kerry was toward his fellow veterans when he accused all of us of war crimes.

Obama is going to have to figure out how to deal with his Rev. Wright, and Williams Ayers relationships, because most Americans would not want either of these men as a friend. If Democrats can't figure that out, they do not deserve to win. My guess is that many Democrats would like a do over now that they know these things.