From Richard Cohen's condemnation of the Democratic primary, which, of course, ends today:
Yes, voter participation is way up and in the end, the Democrats will choose a woman or an African American and, to invoke that tiresome phrase, history will be made. But this messy nominating process has eroded the standing of both candidates. It has highlighted the reality that racism still runs deep and that misogyny, although more imagined than real, is not yet a wholly spent force. This is an ugly porridge that has been placed before us, turned rancid since the cold, pristine days of Iowa only five months ago. We were, with apologies to Bob Dylan, so much younger then.
When you talk to junior-level campaign staffers, you often hear about how Iowa, in retrospect, now seems like this sort of prelapsarian place, where whites voted for blacks and men voted for women and everything just seemed so much simpler.
--Eve Fairbanks