Clinton vs. Obama: The Thrill Is Gone

Three weeks before the next Democratic presidential primary in Pennsylvania, the long-running Punch and Judy show starring Senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama is getting stale. If this were an actual sitcom, the networks would have canceled it by now.

Trailing Obama in the delegate count (according to most media figures), Clinton has vowed to stay in the race until at least June, even though she keeps losing money, support and credibility. Surprisingly, Obama agrees with her.

Clinton is counting on so-called "superdelegates" to put her over the top when all else fails. If so, then the strategy's not working. The latest to jump to the Obama side of the fence is Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar.

What's also not helping Clinton's case is her recollection of a visit to war-torn Bosnia as First Lady a decade ago with daughter Chelsea. She claimed to have been dodging sniper fire during a stopover to get to some ceremony. But footage taken by CBS News, among others, showed the Clintons actually being greeted by a little girl bearing flowers--who in today's post-9/11 environment, might have been frisked by officials looking for bombs before they ever let her get near the First Lady. Reminded of this inconvenient fact, Clinton said she "misspoke".

Clinton has also been accused of tearing down Obama to make herself look good, especially over his lack of experience and his relationship with Reverend Jeremiah Wright, hurting the Democrats' chances in November in the process. Some believe her strategy is to let Republican John McCain win the general election, so she could run against him in 2012.

Chelsea Clinton has been going to college campuses talking up her mother's campaign and taking questions from students, but not the news media. Recently, she responded to one student (who may or may not have been a plant) who asked about her reaction to her father's involvement with Monica Lewinsky. Her answer was along the lines of "none of your business". Excuse me, but if the President of the United States risked being removed from office because he allegedly fooled around with an intern, it is our business. And Chelsea may have inadvertently hurt her mother's campaign because of the answer she gave.

Which is not to say that Obama is infallible. What does it say about his campaign when he's not able to clinch the nomination because he can't convince folks he's more than a novelty candidate?

Hillary Clinton has every right to continue her campaign until the bitter end. But she needs to understand when enough's enough. The longer the senator stays in, the more she risks embarrassing herself and her party with her tactless, classless attacks on Obama.

In other words, folks, it's time to bring down the curtain on the Punch and Judy show.