I rest my case, and suggest most of the subsequent reactions will only prove it further.

A note: I didn’t lecture anyone, just made an observation. And, of course, I was referencing the relative degree of animus shown by respective supporters toward their rival candidates, not, as suggested, the inevitable bickering and counter-bickering among the candidates themselves. I couldn’t begin to sort out who said what untruth first about the other, or to suggest that in the past McCain hasn’t snubbed conservatives gratuitously or that Romney didn’t run a lot of early attack ads.

Nor did I suggest that anyone should stop gathering evidence. Again, the point was the need for some perspective-that in the middle of a war, and a presidential race that will promise to be hellish in the fall, there are more important issues than wondering about what someone says a candidate said to someone else.

I offered a simple observation about the here and now, and as one who neither knows anyone running either campaign nor has any influence. I expand on it a last time sine ira et studio:

As of now (who knows by tomorrow?) the race is shaping up in strange fashion: there are a number of Democrats and Independents who are increasingly turned off by the underhanded Clintons, for both right and wrong reasons. They may well vote for McCain, mostly for his perceived character and war record, but also, yes, rightly or wrongly, for his past “moderation.” I doubt they will do so for Romney or sit out a Romney-Clinton show-down. (Critics, no doubt, will counter that conservatives of all stripes (if tempers cool) would rally around Romney no matter what, and such unity would outnumber any potential crossover voters lost by his nomination.)

By the same token, there are a number of conservatives who (more on ideology and principle rather than due to anger at character flaws as in the case of the Clinton turn-off) simply will not vote for McCain under any circumstances.

So if the election comes down to a McCain versus the Clintons, as I think is the most likely scenario, it may well be decided by a simple calculus in the fall:

Is the more liberal anti-Clinton group that is willing to vote for a Republican nominee larger or smaller than the latter more conservative anti-McCain block who apparently won’t vote for their own Republican nominee?

Lots hinge on the answer.