Be careful what you wish for

Even as Hillary Clinton savors her victory in Kentucky, it is likely to be eclipsed by that of her rival. If expectations come to fruition, Barack Obama is poised to claim the majority of pledged delegates - and presumably the Democratic Party's nomination - after his anticipated win in Oregon. It appears that a preponderance of Democratic voters have rejected Sen. Clinton, and by extension, Clintonism itself (as discussed elsewhere.)

I am sympathetic to the often (and often ham-handedly) expressed argument for Clinton staying in the race, namely that Obama cannot win the votes of working-class whites. It should not surprise that if blacks can vote for Obama by a 9-to-1 margin, whites might also vote overwhelmingly for Hillary. Nevertheless, that the heyday of HillBill is essentially over is clearly a cause for festivities. But any celebration must be tempered by the fact that an ever-triangulating Clintonism is being supplanted by a overly-credulous Carterism.

Obama's blustering about President Bush's appeasement remarks yielded to reiterations of the wisdom of meeting with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (as well as with Fidel Castro, Kim Jung Il and Hugo Chavez.) Obama partisans see all of this as reminiscent of JFK's having "the courage and vision to directly challenge the Cold War." By my lights, the alacrity with which Obama would seek to meet with this rogues' gallery of international despots is evocative of Jimmy Carter's willingness to schmooze the Ayatollah Khomeini in an effort to create what former-National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski described as an "arc of crisis" around the Soviet Union.

We all remember how that worked out.

And if the Carter presidency itself is not enough of a cautionary tale on the perils of consorting with evil-doers, perhaps Carter's latest post-presidential misadventure with Hamas will serve to make the case. As sure as Carterism provided fertile ground for the rise of radical Islam, Obama's reprise will surely lead to greater global instability, increased potential for future acts of terror and a diminished U.S. standing in the world. (But I will give Obama credit for truth in campaigning, as all of this represents a change - for the worse.)

Apropos of nothing, my thoughts and prayers go out to Sen. Ted Kennedy and his family.