Michael Scherer in a recent Salon article puts it right out there:
Amid all the fury and fireworks, she must convince Democratic voters in Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada, South Carolina and the nation that she is worth all the trouble, all the backbiting, the claims and counterclaims that she cannot control.
That’s exactly the question Dem primary voters should be asking. Do they want another year of conversations about Hillary, followed by another four to eight more? And “conversations” is putting quite generously.
What would that do to our politics? Hillary aside, what does the all the bullshit about Hillary do to us? And what will years more of it do? At the end of that era, will we have a politics we’ll be proud of?
I don’t think Hillary is anywhere near as popular as the polls are said to report. I think they’re lying to make us think Hillary is ahead, because the Republicans want Hillary to be the Democratic candidate, because they think they can beat her. They know they couldn’t beat Edwards, so they are downplaying him.
Consequently, I don’t really care about what happens with Hillary, except as it does damage to the other candidates. but, does it? Aren’t the candidates supposed to be telling us at this point how they are better than the other ones? And doesn’t the media pick up on and emphasize anything that could remotely be construed as fighting, and then escalate the fight as best they can? The media thinks it’s only news if it’s a fight.
It’s like they just realized they’ve got a race to cover and are trying to make up for lost time.