Jon Chait's post below does a good job of summarizing Hillary Clinton's disgraceful posturing over Florida. I tuned into Hardball today to find Chris Matthews playing a clip of Senator Clinton talking about Florida, and it was preceded by Barack Obama saying this:
We are at the threshold of being able to obtain this nomination. But I know that this has been a long contest, and so there are people who are concerned that, golly, you know, the Clinton people might not vote for the Obama people. The Obama people are mad at the Clinton people. Maybe they`re going to be divided. The party`s going to be -- let me -- let me tell you something. First of all, Senator Clinton has run an outstanding campaign, and she deserves our admiration and our respect because she has set the standard. She has broken through barriers and will open up opportunities for a lot of people, including my two young daughters.
Where to begin? I suppose I see the utility of this strategy on Obama's part, but there is something unseemly about the Illinois Senator going out of his way to praise Senator Clinton at a time when her entire posture in the campaign is so aggressively negative and pathetic. And now that Clinton has decided that there is no distinction between her quest and the quest of women everywhere, it would be best if Obama resisted the temptation to hold her up as a feminist icon.
Breaking Update: Clinton compares Florida vote to Zimbabwe! No this is not an Onion headline.
--Isaac Chotiner