This is quite literally the Elephant in the middle of the room.
Commentators today were pointing out that Rush Limbaugh's "Endorsement" of Hillary likely put her over the top in the open Texas primary and substantially increased her margin of victory in Ohio's primary (also open).
On NPR today, Dole '96 campaign manager Scott Reed openly salivated at the prospect of a Clinton nomination: "Nothing unites Republicans like running against a Clinton."
The Republicans worked to make McGovern the Democratic nominee in 1972. It looks like they're at it again. Like Bond villians openly revealing their evil plans, they don't even try to hide the fact that they know Clinton will be much easier for McCain to defeat. And NPR's political reporters went on to talk about Hillary being the easier target for Republicans as a matter of fact, not opinion.
Yet somehow this reality is not filtering down to the Democratic electorate. The Obama campaign needs to get the word out.
It's one thing for Republicans and Independents to cross over and vote for Obama in the primaries because they like him and would seriously consider voting for him in the general election -- passing up the opportunity to vote in the Republican primaries when there was still a real race there.
It's quite another for Dittoheads to invade a Democratic primary to help our weaker potential nominee win (after the Republican race has already been decided). This is why I was against Kos's "vote for Romney in Michigan" ploy. It's too easy for those tactics to be used against us.
So, are we going to let the Republicans pick the Democratic nominee they want to run against or are we going to wisen up FAST?!
The Obama campaign might want to start by running ads featuring audio of Rush Limbaugh encouraging his minions to screw the Democrats by voting for Hillary. (If anyone has that audio, please post it in the comments.)