If your life is anything like mine (e.g. you’re on the Internet, all day), you already know the ins and outs of the race for the Democratic nomination. Day after day, columnists and pundits play Hot Potato with home-spun topics, and we watch and read in return. So I’m not going to waste our time here with all the twists and follies. (Look them up if you like.) But Democrats, listen, we are seriously fucking this up. Sen. McCain, a Republican, is leading both Sen. Obama and Sen. Clinton, nationally. This, after only two weeks of the Republican machine throwing stones at Obama, as Clinton stood silently on the sidelines. The Democratic National Convention begins five months from tomorrow, leaving only two months until the general election.

The Republicans won’t disappear, no matter how many times we underestimate their viciousness. But their angles of attack are only made more effective by the Clinton campaign’s willingness to let Obama drown in order for her to resurface victorious with super-delegate support. By the time we reach the convention, Senators Obama and Clinton will be so badly bloodied, we won’t be able to tell ass from elbow. Independents will vote for McCain just because he still resembles a human being.

This slash and burn strategy gambles, not with Sen. Clinton’s own pot, but with the entire bank of the Democratic party. Nobody expects Sen. Clinton to drop out of the race on her own volition; indeed, a loyal base supports her tenacity. Only an unlikely loss in Pennsylvania, along with the remaining states where Obama leads, could one imagine her forfeit. So the only remaining remedy is that we, as a party, look towards our long term goals and survival, by embracing Sen. Obama as the Democratic nominee, immediately and in full-force.

Obama leads in delegates, states and votes–something increasingly likely to hold, going into the Convention. He’s gained 62 super-delegates to Clinton’s five since Feb. 5. Even her own campaign admits she has a mere 10-percent chance of coming in ahead in popular votes, and even less in pledged delegates. But none of this matters, for one reason or another. She seems to be going all-in with twos when her opponent has aces; her only chance at winning is to have something up her sleeve.

Still, I understand Clinton supporters rejecting this argument as purely political blathering–I supported her once, too. But imagine, for a moment, if the Republicans were in our shoes–If Sen. McCain and Gov. Romney were currently hacking each other to pieces, doing our dirty work, we would laugh at their own undoing. And that’s what they’re doing to us, right now.

If this unnecessary civil war within our party is to continue, it will, at best, put in jeopardy the White House and valuable seats in Congress. At worst, it threatens to disenfranchise and dispirit an entire generation of new Democrats now heavily invested, with time and money and hope, in this year’s particularly arduous process. Ending this inevitable bloodbath stands as our best chance at victory in November. Just because you can find reasons for Sen. Clinton to stay in the race doesn’t mean it serves our party, or our nation, in the best way possible.

Sen. Clinton is fighting for her political life. But in doing so, she is helping build the coffin of the entire Democratic party. She would serve both herself and her country better by giving her full support to Sen. Obama immediately. However, I fear political shortsightedness and reckless ambition will end in a head-on collision for the Democratic party.