Obama's self-destruction

"Good, I can feel your anger. I am defenseless. Take your weapon. Strike me down with all of your hatred and your journey towards the dark side will be complete!"

-- Emperor to Luke Skywalker,

in "Return of the Jedi"

Michelle Obama says her husband's ready to reach for his light saber:

He is said to be itching to turn all his fire on John McCain, the Republican candidate, who is benefiting most from Mr Obama's protracted tussle with Hillary Clinton.
Mrs Obama told a rally in Durham, North Carolina, on Friday that only her husband's desire to change US politics had helped him to control his feelings: "Barack is always thinking three steps ahead -- what do we need to do to make change."
Her husband was thinking "I can't let my ego, my anger, my frustration get in the way of the ultimate goal," she said. . . .
A senior Democrat strategist privy to Obama's campaign said: "He's sick of the battle against Clinton. He wants to get stuck into McCain. His people have had to remind him that this thing isn't over yet and he needs to focus and put her away."

Obama's real problem, you see, is neither Clinton nor McCain. Obama's real problem is Obama. After Super Tuesday, he started thinking too far ahead, anticipating his general-election campaign against the Republicans before he had finished off Hillary. To adapt an old axiom, If you go to kill the Queen, be sure to kill the Queen.

Watching the Democrats descending into chaos -- did somebody say "chaos"? -- my mind keeps turning back to a fact I noted when I went to cover Hillary in March: While the former First Lady was slogging around Pennsylvania, desperately trying to keep her campaign going, Obama was vacationing in the Virgin Islands.

If, by some combination of mischief and miracle, Hillary comes back to win the nomination, Obama's decision to go splashing in the tropical surf will be remembered as one of the biggest blunders in American political history. March is a cold, gray month in Pennsylvania. How many of those "bitter" voters wished they could have afforded a trip to St. Thomas?

The Other Michelle (heh!) has an open thread about Michelle Obama's "boiling point" remarks.