STRAY THOUGHTS

With so many prominent Democrats proclaiming that the party is being hurt by the prolonged nomination fight, I can't help wondering: Would this be hurting the party less if there weren't so many prominent Democrats saying, for attribution, that it's hurting the party?

And since all these prominent Democrats seem to have the press's attention, either to prolong the intraparty battle or to wring their hands about how the prolonged intraparty battle deprives the party of the opportunity to send a nominee out to criticize John McCain, wouldn't it be a good idea for some of these Democrats to take advantage of the press attention they're getting by doing the criticizing of John McCain themselves?

Maybe, as a show of unity, the party could even send some of these prominent Democrats out in pairs -- one Obama person, one Clinton person -- to talk about the unacceptability of a McCain presidency. Imagine the pairings -- Bob Casey with John Murtha! Madeleine Albright with Bill Richardson! Howard Wolfson with David Axelrod! Hell, maybe even Geraldine Ferraro with Samantha Power! (Perhaps it's just because I was an Italian kid who grew up in an Irish city, Boston, but I could imagine those two actually bonding.)

Look, it would have to be an improvement over the party's current offering, the Everybody Fan Out and Alternately Bash and Wring Your Hands Tour.