Looks Like Curtains for the Bill and Hillary Show

Right now, there should be someone out there printing up an "I Survived the Clinton Machine" tee shirt in Obama's size.

Yesterday, one of our cable news networks continually provided the averages for the Ohio polls, and the end result was a slim Clinton lead and the illusion of suspense. I stand by these words today, even though certain polls-- including Rasmussen, I believe-- have shown a less precarious Clinton edge. Mrs. Clinton is losing her grip on Ohio just as she has in Texas.

This illusion of suspense is curiously similar to the illusion of choice that exists in both campaigns.

It really and truly does appear that the plug will be pulled on Clinton campaign life support. The Bill and Hillary Show (christened by National Review) will go on, but it will no longer be the main event. For some of us who actually watch trends in the polls-- rather than glomming figures together to keep viewers in a state of suspended disbelief-- this is no surprise.

There is no longer any real choice in the Democratic race. But the Democrats are no strangers to creating choice where no reasonable choice exists, and our pimped-out media are no strangers to perpetuating myths.

On the Republican ticket, we're seeing the same thing except more so. Mike Huckabee wants to hang in there. He is not going to win, but he can further carve out a power position for himself in the party. This same dynamic will soon kick into play with the Clintons, but in the opposite direction.

Very large numbers of voters in both parties are on the road to nowhere right now. The Republican portion of this curious bloc knows it; the Democrats are still in denial.

The difference is not trivial. Republicans, on a whole slate of issues, are better able to come to terms with reality than the Democrats. When Republicans throw their votes away, they recognize it. They have backed a loser, but they have their own reasons for doing so.

Hillary voters, on the other hand, don't see their votes as being wasted. Not until tomorrow, when the plug is actually pulled, will they open their eyes and realize there was no real choice after all. The candidate of inevitability will have been proven to be... evitable.

The Campaign of Denial can arguably take some comfort in the fact that it will now belong to a party with a cadidate who is actually favored to win the White House. A candidate who will actually have an inauguration. One that might emerge as the clear favorite.

But I doubt it. The same people who right now cannot free themselves from either the illusion of suspense or of choice will find precisely this scenario completely unacceptable at worst, and highly uncomfortable at best. This segment of the Democratic Party sees loss as something honorable and decent, and something actually to be striven for. They have found their girl, and it will be hard to let go. They may have to. Oh, they could still vote Republican in a last-ditch effort to lose, but this could backfire, and McCain might actually win.

Obama is right. Hillary has painted his supporters as a bunch of dreamy and delusional fools who can't accept reality. A bunch of Uncle Billys, if you will, with the strings around the fingers telling them what day, and which way, to vote. In the end, the exact opposite will be true. And tomorrow, when those skies open up, and the celestial choirs sing, and the light shines down, the Democratic party might actually have emerged with a winner.