James restates a common theme:

His triumph is questionable in terms of small-ball politics, but neither you, I, nor the Democratic party should worry much about that. In terms of the American character, it´s an important and refreshing reminder that we can, in fact, raise the bar when it comes to our politicians, and admire the luxury of our own high expectations both conscientiously and confidently.

But there is a caveat:

All of this is ruined, of course, if Obama caves and Hillary slithers onto the ticket.

It seems to me that everyone is getting ahead of themselves.  Tonight Obama will technically “clinch” the nomination by crossing the 2,118 delegate threshold almost regardless of how well or poorly he does in the last two primaries, at which point the Clinton campaign will say, “But, of course, all those Michigan delegates you claim you have aren’t really yours, so you’re not there yet, ha ha!”  This is what Michelle Obama complains about when she talks about how “they move the bar,” but “they” will keep “moving the bar” unless and until Obama cedes to Clinton a spot on the ticket.  What no one has been able to explain to me is how it is that Hillary Clinton, whom these same critics paint in the most lurid colours as the mistress of disorder and the spirit of chaos, will yield now when she refused to yield when it had become essentially mathematically impossible for her to take the pledged delegate lead.  According to her worst detractors, she is the epitome of blind egotism and the lust for power, but now she will step aside for the greater good?  Now that she can more or less reasonably claim to have a popular vote plurality, we’re supposed to believe that she will depart when she would not before?  I must brush up on my Clinton demonology, because it seems to me that you cannot believe that Clinton is a soul-sucking revenant who comes to destroy us all (as her more sympathetic critics have portrayed her this year) and believe that the race is over tonight.  Of course, it could be that she is not quite the nightmarish creature her enemies claim that she is, in which case including her on the ticket not only makes sense but does not compromise any high principles or expectations.     

It will become increasingly clear that for the sake of party unity he will be compelled to choose her, and yet this necessary act will be received by many of his admirers as the complete betrayal of everything he stands for?  Talk about moving the bar!  Not only is he going to be forced into choosing her, but then he will be denounced as a charlatan when he does the only thing that Clinton’s partisans realistically leave open to him.  As a practical matter, if he does not choose her, what just happened on Saturday in settling Florida and Michigan, and Michigan in particular, is going to come back to haunt Obama and could provoke a convention fight that might spell disaster for whichever ticket emerges on the other side.   

Update: As expected, she will never go away.

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