WHAT LIFE WOULD BE LIKE IF THE CLINTONS ARE BACK IN THE WHITE HOUSE

MICHAEL GERSON, WASH POST OP ED – The Clintons practice a form of politics without honor. Already Clinton's proxies have attacked Obama as a drug user and maybe a drug dealer, and bemoaned politicians who "shuck and jive." These are code words one would expect to overhear from George Wallace at a cocktail party with Lester Maddox. Robo-calls in Nevada made reference to "Barack Hussein Obama." Clinton accuses Obama of defending a slumlord -- and even, God forbid, of defending Ronald Reagan.

Given the Clintons' cultivation of ruthlessness as a political art, none of this is surprising. Obama is the soaring candidate -- the candidate of idealism and aspiration. Clinton's only hope is to bring him down to earth, then bury him in flying dirt. Clinton prefers a war of attrition -- blow for bloody blow -- because her team is better at the tactics of politics. Unable to inspire, Clinton chooses to destroy.

This may work in the primaries since many Democrats seem to prefer a fighter to a lover. But I suspect these tactics will eventually backfire. African American Democrats cannot be pleased to see Obama cut and bleeding from a thousand distorted attacks. And while Clinton is clearly the best partisan in the race, the country does not seem to be in a partisan mood.