The torch en route

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Sunday , May 11, 2008 at 2050 hrs It’s been a while since we last thought of the Olympic torch. Where is the little guy these days, anyway? Still getting good hotel rooms? The torch came to mind as the Democratic primary election returns came rolling in. Has anyone else noticed how much the presidential campaign and the Olympics are starting to resemble one another? Triumphant march toward the big summer party turns into an endless race through conflicts in increasingly remote places. Meanwhile, the fiesta ambience gives way to sullen muttering about calling the whole thing off. “Hillary, of course, will make the decision as to if and when she ends her campaign. But I hope that she reaches that decision soon,” said the former Senator George McGovern. McGovern is 85, and was an early Clinton supporter. These days, he represents her most loyal demographic: extremely old people. One of the flaws in the theory that Hillaryites will stay home in November rather than vote for Barack is that many of her staunchest backers are elderly voters, who tend to be such kneejerk good citizens that they would drag themselves to the polls even if the only candidates on the ballot were Lindsay Lohan and Ryan Seacrest. You may have heard, by the way, that residents of Saint Mary’s Convent in South Bend, all in their ’80s and ’90s, showed up to vote and were turned away because of Indiana’s strict new voter ID laws. The laws are supposed to keep people from voting under assumed names, and while nobody seems able to demonstrate that ever really happens, they are demonstrably good at protecting the public from a 98-year-old ballot-wielding nun. But we digress. The question on everyone’s lips currently is whether Hillary will quit now that her chances of winning the nomination are extremely remote. Privately, she says she does not intend to go home and tell Chelsea that she’s a quitter, and this is a side of her that even many Clinton-haters have really come to appreciate. After this campaign, nobody in America can ever seriously argue that women aren’t capable of being in armed combat. She is strong. She is invincible. Or, at minimum, extremely hard to discourage. “It’s still early,” she said to the inevitable questions about her plans. Clinton was paying a surprise visit to a college in West Virginia. West Virginia is very excited about having its day in the sun,...