ANALYSIS/OPINION:

Like a dog returning to its vomit, the Democrats just can’t leave bad enough alone. There’s a new election to win, but they can’t give up their coup to avenge Hillary Clinton. This is good news for the Republicans, but it’s bad news for the country.

Losing an election is no fun, but it happens, and the smart and savvy thing for a party to do is to move on and plot a better campaign, with a better candidate, next time. Selling socialism to the American voter is smarter and savvier than continuing to fight this lost cause.

The release of the Mueller report on Thursday was the second bite of that particular apple and it was no sweeter than the first. They just can’t find the core to throw at Donald Trump. “Could it be that [the president’s] behavior is at times distasteful to some but not illegal,” asked Jonathan Turley, the legal analyst at CBS News. “That’s not a huge recommendation but clearly prosecutors did not believe there was a case to be made.”

The excitement of the great snipe hunt obscured the fact that Robert Mueller was commissioned to determine whether Donald Trump colluded with the Russians to cook the result of a presidential election. Fair and square, Hillary Clinton, “the most qualified candidate for president in history,” as her friends called her, lost. Mr. Mueller concluded that there was no collusion.

But conclusions are not what the Democrats were counting on. They want indictments, trials and perp walks. Robert Mueller, who only yesterday was the great white hope of the left, can now expect calumny, vilification and abuse from those to whom he was the avenging hero. David Axelrod, the chief strategist for Barack Obama’s two successful campaigns, is still one of the eager soldiers of the lost cause. “The report provides a conundrum for Congress by virtually inviting an impeachment probe around the obstruction issue,” he says.

This is good news only for the president. The great unwashed out there in fly-over country have probably had enough, and want to leave the old election behind and move on to the new, as we always have. “Game over,” the president tweeted Thursday. He’s right about that. It’s time to bank the fire, call in the dogs and get ready for the war next year.

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