The Dish

Ambinder on the lessons of the Dem race so far. Ruffini concurs.

Paul Starr worries about both Obama’s and Clinton’s prospects up against McCain. I think McCain would beat Clinton. But the Democrats could always try this tack.

Fred Barnes outlines the Billary "buddy system" dynamic here. Here’s Obama’s attempt to respond while trying not to become the politician he doesn’t want to be:

Larison gets mean. Dreher piles on. I can’t imagine a post-campaign Romney taking on a big issue like global warming and changing the global dialogue. Gore is a blowhard and a little plastic. But he has convictions.

Pete Abel makes a good deal of sense to me:

1. McCain raises the ire of the contemporary Republican establishment because he rejects their meaner instincts. As I’ve written before, McCain decries torture while the Establishment excuses it. He fights pork-barrel spending while they enable it. He calls for policies to combat global warming while they deny it. He seeks reasonable compromises on immigration policy while they stoke fear and prejudice.

2. McCain represents for Republicans what Obama represents for Democrats: a meaningful step away from the last 15-plus years. I’m not saying either man will revolutionize partisan politics as we know it, but both promise (at a minimum) evolutionary progress toward a different America. And if we truly believe country is more important than party, then we owe it to ourselves to boost the two candidates who (among all their peers) represent the best hope for moving us in a post-partisan direction, regardless of our individual party loyalties.

Will this be Huckabee’s legacy in this campaign?

The Atlanta mayor takes on Bill Clinton.

Readers may have noticed that I have found myself slipping. I no longer refer to Clinton’s candidacy. I refer to the Clintons’ candidacy. This was always the case, of course. They have been professionally joined at the hip for their entire careers. Their marriage, among other things, is a power-move – for them both. But I never expected Bill to show his hand this crudely and this unpleasantly so soon. I’ll bet he didn’t either. But that’s how close Obama has come.

At least now we know what this race is about: Obama versus the Clintons. Both of them. Their dynasty. Their power. Their methods. Their character. And so the question becomes: does America really want a Restoration? And if Hillary is this beholden to Bill in the campaign, what will his role be in the White House? I’ve long hoped he’d be given a clear job, accountable to the president and the public. But that isn’t their style. When you re-elect royal families, you get their family dynamics as well. What we’re seeing now is a small glimpse of what we would be dealing with for at least four years.

They can still be stopped.

(Photo: Ethan Miller/Getty.)

I’m going home. Bainbridge pulls a Cartman on the GOP race. Joyner demurs.

I’m with McWhorter. Yeah: the Clintons are back to Inevitable again. But that could be a good thing for Obama. In this fast-changing race, there’s plenty of time for another plot development. Especially when we all see where this is looking to end, and so few people actually enthusiastically, in their hearts, want that.