It’s probably too feel-good and corny for the sophisticated Washington crowd, but an Associated Press wire story out of Oregon last week could hold the key for Democrats hoping to unite after the Clinton-Obama grudge match.

Sara Tucholsky of the Western Oregon University women’s softball team reportedly hit what appeared to be a game-winning home run in a hard-fought play-off game against Central Washington University.

In the excitement, Tucholsky missed first base, so she was forced to turn back and tag it before she could finish her victory lap around the bases. But, in the blink of an eye, the senior softballer crumpled to the ground with a painful knee injury that kept her from circling the rest of the bases to claim her homer.

Since she would be called out if her teammates helped her around, the only other option was to replace Tucholsky with a pinch runner on first and reduce the homer to a single. A serious dilemma with no good options for a team with championship dreams.

Then the heroics.

Clearing it with the umpire, and bringing many of the players and spectators to tears, the shortstop and first baseman from the opposing team carried Tucholsky around the bases, slowing just long enough for her to touch each base with her good leg as they passed.

The home run, ensured by the opposing team’s act of supreme sportsmanship, not only gave Western Oregon the victory, but ended Central Washington’s own chance of advancing in the playoffs.  

Metaphors and analogies always break down on some level, and this one is no exception. But this inspirational story does hint at the dilemma Democrats face as they head to the polls Tuesday in North Carolina and Indiana.

With his impressive early run of primary victories and insurmountable lead in pledged delegates, a case could be made that Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) already hit the game-winning home run.

But his talk of “bitter” people who “cling” to God and guns, and the antics of his non-designated hitter, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, have left Obama injured on the field and unable to make it all the way home.

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.), trying to claim the playoff slot for herself, is hawking victories in the big, swing states that are essential if Democrats are to take the White House in November. Recent polls showing Clinton as the more formidable candidate against Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) bolster her claim to support.

So Obama played by the rules and is likely to win a majority of the pledged delegates but is now unable to finish strongly, whereas Clinton has strengthened and is polling better against McCain, but has surged too late to catch Obama without a nasty convention fight.

If Clinton goes on to win the nomination with superdelegates, she would be burdened by hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of dispirited new voters who came to the show only because of Obama.

The treacly softball story shows what Democrats need to do if they hope to leave Denver feeling good about themselves and also feeling that they have fielded the best team for November.

Forget about “dream tickets” or whether the convention will be as nasty as reporters hope — someone is going to leave Denver clutching that nomination like a Little Leaguer gripping a brand new Louisville Slugger.  

But it is also safe to say that whoever eventually emerges victorious from the Pepsi Center will be in serious need of support from his or her erstwhile opponent.

Failing to secure that kind of support at a convention has proved damaging before. Sen. Edward Kennedy’s (D-Mass.) on-stage snub of President Carter in 1980 might not have been the deciding factor in Catrter’s subsequent loss to Ronald Reagan, but it certainly didn’t help. Democrats left their New York City convention that year extremely disunified, and they lost the presidency.

Reagan’s feud with President Gerald Ford four years earlier had a similar result. Again, it was perhaps not the deciding factor in Ford’s eventual loss to Carter, but it did ensure that the GOP left their convention wondering if they had picked the wrong guy and left their best candidate in the cheap seats — something the Democrats hope not to repeat in 2008.

You can reach Jim Mills at This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it