I like both Sanders and Clinton and would be happy with either of them as President. I just want to nominate the one most likely to defeat the Republican nominee. These days, sometimes I read the lamentations about and attacks on both candidates and despair, thinking that maybe both Sanders and Clinton are so unelectable that either will be likely to lose the general election, and want to blame the Democrats for clearing the field for Clinton so thoroughly that only Sanders, who may be too far left to win the general election, was left in the race to challenge her.

But then I think of Martin O’Malley, and realize that both Sanders and Clinton must be pretty good to have so soundly defeated him so early in the game. O’Malley is a perfectly viable candidate with no more flaws than John Kerry, Al Gore, Bill Clinton, or Jimmy Carter. Not as good as Barack Obama, but then again no one is. In another primary, O’Malley would have been a frontrunner. So why did so many Democrats choose either Sanders or Clinton over O’Malley, whose policy positions are right in between Clinton and Sanders? The answer must be that Sanders and Clinton are very good candidates if they managed to so thoroughly defeat someone like O’Malley, who is just as good as most of the Democratic nominees of the past.

So good luck to both Sanders and Clinton. May the most electable Democrat win the primary, and go on the win the general.