Tired

So now we trudge on to Indiana and North Carolina. There is really nothing left to say about their positions on the important matters of the day. It can only be more of the same. We must prepare ourselves to listen and learn about things that separate the candidates not on their substance but on some imagined matter that shows us what the other candidate is really about. I am tired and they must be bone tired.

It is now 15 months since Barack Obama began this journey. It is more than another 6 months until the general election. When analysts talk of the baseball season being a marathon, not a sprint, they are right. But when we look at the tortorous length of this campaign, it makes baseball appear like a 100 yard dash.

When Senator Clinton is practically begging for contributions so she can keep her campaign going, after having received $20 million last month, we have to ask ourselves what we are doing. Day after day, and month after month, they slog on. When Senator Clinton said it takes a village, I don't think she envisioned having to take each and every village along the way.

When Senator Obama must raise $40 million in a month to try to get his message across to try to stem whatever momentum Senator Clinton is mounting, he must be shaking his head. The math does not say Senator Clinton should still be here. She cannot overtake his lead to get enough delegates and superdelegates to capture the nomination. Logic should dictate that she give up the fight so that all attention can be focused on Senator McCain. But Senator Clinton will not go gently into the night. She will exhaust herself, and every resource at her disposal, to keep going. In the movies , we see the bloodied and battered fighter on the canvas and we pray he will stay down. This is not the movies, and Senator Clinton is back on her feet once more.

When do they sleep? I heard James Carville suggest that Senator Obama was off his game the other night in the last debate with Senator Clinton. He stated that this could well be attributable to his being sleep deprived. The constant need to be 'on' must be so difficult. There was an article in the NY Times this morning referencing an incident in which Senator Obama is being questioned by a reporter about Jimmy Carter and Hamas, as the Senator is trying to eat his breakfast. He questions , out loud, why he can't just be permitted to eat his waffle.

When I worry whether Senator Obama has the stamina and staying power, physically and emotionally, to withstand the rigors of the next 6 months, I cringe. This is a young man, in the prime of his life, who may very soon make Senator McCain seem much younger than 71. I don"t want the Democratic nominee to be a shell of a person while the real fight still lays ahead, but I think that is the ugly possibility. For while I am tired , that is nothing compared to how our Democratic candidates must feel.