The Democrats have made history this year with a fascinating primary contest that gave virtually every state — even heavily Republican Kansas — its day in the national spotlight.
Many young people focused on public affairs for the first time while many of their parents tossed off years or even decades of political apathy. Millions of women and African-Americans take special pride in the ground-breaking candidacies of Sen. Hillary Clinton and Sen. Barack Obama.
It now seems fairly clear that the party’s champion in the general election will be Obama.
He and much of the party are understandably turning their attention to the difficult challenges they will face against Sen. John McCain, a Republican with considerable appeal to independent voters.
Obama’s decision to return to Iowa on Tuesday was designed to shift the focus forward to the fall.
Clinton is certainly free to continue her campaign, emphasizing themes that are important to her and her millions of supporters. She, like Obama, deserves credit for presenting the public with detailed positions on both foreign and domestic policy.
But given the delegate totals, much of the press and the public are likely to start paying less attention to her campaign, barring some particularly dramatic development.
Clinton aides say that she believes her supporters would quickly rally around Obama at the appropriate time. Most probably will. In the heat of a primary nomination battle, it is easy to forget how well parties often come together by the time the fall campaign rolls around, if not before.
Obama and his supporters can take pride in his inspirational campaign, one in which he frequently appealed to the better instincts of the American people and called for a greater sense of national unity.
He has demonstrated great skill at organization and has responded well to adversity. He has shown a reassuring grasp of key foreign policy issues as well as the economic concerns of average Americans.
Still, Republicans have turned to the strongest candidate who sought the GOP nomination this year.
McCain has extensive military and foreign policy credentials, and he has a record of trying to move the country in the right direction on issues like campaign finance reform, environmental protection and fiscal responsibility.
In short, the public can expect a hard-fought general election campaign this year as well.
