NEW YORK—Astute readers of this space may have noticed a certain lull this month. In part, I’ve been distracted by other things. But more importantly, a thrilling political winter has turned into a very dull spring.

Slate judged the aptest sports metaphor for this year’s Democratic nomination to be boxing: “a 15-round heavyweight bout that ends with several knockdowns but no clear winner.” This is almost accurate; what’s missing is the fact that the fight was never meant to go past three rounds. By now, my popcorn is finished, my beer is warm, and all I really want to do is go home.

In fact, the most exciting part of the primaries has become predictions on when it all might end. On Wednesday, Philip Bredesen, governor of Tennessee and policy chairman of the Democratic Governors’ Association, urged the party to convene a superdelegate primary in June, the winner of which would effectively become the nominee.

The reception to Bredesen’s idea has been cool. That’s understandable. One of the perks of being a superdelegate in a tight race is a summer of love: endless attention from both candidates, and promises of who knows what. Why would anyone want to cut that short?

But I hope the party comes around, and finds a way to make this race exciting again. The headline writers in this country are killing themselves with boredom.

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Posted on Thursday, March 20th, 2008 at 5:41 pm. Follow comments through the RSS 2.0 feed. Comment or trackback.