I recently received the following email from a progressive list I'm on:

Hi all-I rarely -- if ever -- send out mass emails for something like this.  But I'm extremely concerned that Democrats have a very real chance of losing this fall -- and that loss will be devastating to all of us.The longer the primaries goes on, the more I'm finding my friends are becoming entrenched in their Democratic nominee choice.  Obama fans have started hating Clinton.  Clinton supporters have long lists of reasons why not to support Obama.  And I'm afraid that at the end of the day, all of this infighting is going to keep voters home in November and cost us this election.  And all this money we're spending fighting each other in these primaries -- which may resolve nothing -- is less money we have to spend against the real threat: John McCain.I think the best ticket is a united ticket.  I've started a petition to call on Clinton and Obama to unite the ticket.  There's really no other feasible choice than to unite the candidates on a single, powerful, unprecedented ticket.  It would unite the party.  And both have huge support networks and the last thing we can afford is to lose supporters for either candidates.  More importantly, together I think they'd be unstoppable.You can read the letter and sign on here:http://unitetheticket.org/If you don't agree, I completely understand.But if you do agree, forward this email to your friends. Let's try to start a movement to unite our party.  It's time we stop fighting each other and start fighting for the White House.

Honestly, I don't understand this kind of talk. A few things should  be  keep in mind:1. Primary voters should have a chance to vote.2. The primary voter totals show that: with 99 percent of the vote (in Wisconsin), both Obama and Clinton received more votesthan ALL THE REPUBLICANS COMBINED! If it was only on votes and you stripped all party affiliation (of those that are still running), the order would go:

Obama         645,554

Clinton         452,590
McCain        224,122

Huckabee    151,114
Paul              19,129
Gravel                596

How is this election process ripping the Democratic Party apart?I felt attacked by friend who is a supporter of Clinton when it was obvious that Obama actually had a shot at winning, but other than that I've not experienced any kind of hatred between the supporters (we're still friends). I think that her pain came more from frustration and shock, than actual disgust at me for being an Obama supporter. There is hatred of Obama supporters in the media (we've been compared to followers of  Charles Manson and Hare Krishna, we've been called cultish), but I've not felt that same hatred anywhere else.As far as the money goes, the trends go along the same lines.

Jan 2008
Obama   $31 million
Clinton $13 million.

October-December 2007
Clinton   $26.5 million
Obama   $22.8 million ]

Clinton and Obama raised almost as much together in January, as they did in the last in Oct, Nov, and Dec combined.. There is absolutely NO proof that the primary elections are having ANY negative effect on the Democrats chances in November. In fact, both candidates are surging in voters and money.Texas and Ohio are vital for Hillary. If she loses either state, I doubt she'll be able to recover. If she loses both, it's essentially game over. But if she wins (as she is projected to in both races), she'll be on track to win the nomination. If they go into Denver essentially tied, Clinton will win. She is the establishment candidate, and has 30 some years of political ties to cash in.Any movement to somehow neuter the voting process and pick a candidate now will do more harm to the party, than ANYTHING the primaries would do. Imagine if we "united the ticket" before Wisconsin! We would have disenfranchised more Democratic voters than ALL of the Republican voters combined. If you want to destroy the Democrats chances at victory in November, forcing a choice now would be the way to do it.

cross posted from Rabid Yellow Dog