Why Democrats should ‘chill out’

What happened

As Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama continue their fight for the Democratic presidential nomination, their Republican rival, John McCain, is focusing on fundraising and building a campaign machine for the November general election. (The Washington Post, free registration)

What the commentators said

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Bill Clinton was right when he said Democrats need to “chill out,” said E.J. Dionne in The Washington Post (free registration). Hillary Clinton has a “strong argument” for staying in the race, and everyone who wants “to end this brawl” will just have to wait “as long as Clinton and Obama want to keep their battle alive.” But mudslinging, by either side, discredits the “Clinton legacy,” and the Democrats will pay for that in November.

Tell that to the Obama surrogates trying to shove Hillary out the door, said Marie Cocco in RealClearPolitics. That comes across as an insulting, sexist demand for Hillary to “step aside” and take “the lesser title and the lower pay to make room for the younger guy with the thinner resume.” And insulting Clinton’s “supporters—especially women and, in particular, working-class women, who have clung to her candidacy all these months—isn't much of a general-election victory strategy.”

Nor is “ham-handedly” attacking House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for having the temerity to suggest that superdelegates should rally behind the candidate who wins the most pledged delegates, said Marsha Mercer in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Yet that’s precisely what Clinton’s big financial backers did. Clinton is clearly “willing to forget that change is in the air,” and if she goes too far in pressing her claim to the nomination she “risks being tagged as an old-style politician from an era when the moneyed elite ran the table.”