Andrew Sullivan:

Isn't it remarkable how eager the Republicans are to declare the Democratic race over?

Absolutely. It's like they don't want to waste any of their mud on folks that won't end up running. They don't understand that the primary period is a valuable time for a political party, while we work out what we stand for and what we believe in. The goals of the party are more important than what Personality we decide is "faultless" (or, in the case of the repubs hoping that the candidate gets locked down soon, "always wrong").