Robert Novak writes:

While President George W. Bush has maintained neutrality among contenders for the Republican presidential nomination, he privately expresses to friends his exasperation with Mitt Romney's hard-line stance on immigration.

Michael Barone, meanwhile, thinks that John McCain "is on an unobstructed flight path to the nomination, facing a few crosswinds but no serious navigation hazards." In contrast, he sees potential for serious damage to the Democrats in the head-on collision between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama:

The Clinton campaign, defeated in Iowa and nearly in New Hampshire, scraping by in Nevada and expecting a clobbering in South Carolina, faced a choice between losing clean and winning ugly. What is amusing is that so many liberal commentators were surprised when the Clinton apparat, with the unhesitation of a shark, chose the latter option.

Barone sees a possible parallel to 1980, when Ted Kennedy, when having lost his nomination battle against Jimmy Carter, continued his "bitter denunciations" of Carter up to the convention. We can only hope.

Posted by John at 8:44 AM  |    |