Yesterday Rachel Maddow said this on Countdown:
I feel like I‘ve become kind of a semi-pro listener to the news, where I‘m always listening for Democratic candidates and even their surrogates to say John McCain. Every time I hear them say it, a little bell goes off in my mind, because that‘s what I think Democrats—anybody who has an interest in John McCain not becoming president, whether or not you support Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton or Ralph Nader or anybody else in the race, Mike Gravel as the Libertarian, if you want John McCain to not win, you have to start hitting him now, because the default position of the press toward John McCain is so positive that unless other candidates are actively and specifically going after him all the time, his free ride takes him right to the White House.
But too many Kossacks spend all their energy attacking Hillary Clinton instead, even though she's already lost. Vastly more recommended diaries attack Clinton than attack McCain. And surrogates for both campaigns are fighting each other in destructive terms (mostly from the Clinton side, since they are desperate).
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Folks, we need to be gracious in victory, or we risk having it be a poisoned victory. The Clintons are aggressive competitors, and like many competitive people they sometimes lose perspective. But they aren't evil, and we need enough good will remaining to pull the party back together. I see discussions on dKos just assuming that it must be Hillary's people telling Texans to go to the wrong places for the convention, recirculating Ken Starr / Drudge Report lies from the 90s, and otherwise missing the point. You can stop hating on Hillary now, she's not getting the nomination. In any case, when she's seen as the target of unfair attacks she gets a sympathy vote, that's how she won New Hampshire. Everyone be polite to her and she'll lose faster.
At this stage, I'd like to see a competition for the diary that can zing John McCain the best.