Everyone takes their turn on the Merry Go Round...as the Haterade is spewed in the faces of

[The Mouth]

3. Yes, but

in some ways, the primaries are about learning how to dodge those rocks now before they really start flying in the general.

I mean I don't care to see Democrats tearing each other up, and we shouldn't give the other side any ammunition they wouldn't have anyway. But the worst that any of the contenders is going to throw at each other is nothing compared to what the Republicans are going to try to do to them in the general.

Primaries have to be Darwinian. If anyone has a fatal flaw, an Achilles heel, better to find it NOW. I recall how close we came to nominating Edwards; he seemed like the real deal and able to go all the way; if he'd been the nominee in 2008.......

And for all the revulsion and scorn sometimes heaped on those in the 'fly-over states', whoever we nominate *MUST* appeal to them, decisively, period, and sometimes those of us in the bubble wherein Biden is considered 'too conservative' and Mayor Pete too white and middle of the road aren't the best judge of that; sometimes it takes attacks to define and discover, even if we feel those attacks go too far, that's the process and there really isn't an alternative; like boxers training right before the title bout, punches will be thrown than can actually hurt, nature of the game.