...The break in detente began last Sunday as the Sanders camp pushed the notion that Warren was the candidate of the elite, seemingly piggybacking on an earlier attack by Joe Biden against the Massachusetts senator. Warren returned fire by calling out her rival for “sending his volunteers out to trash me,” seemingly surprised that this sort of thing is what happens in a contested race.

Then came a report that Sanders told Warren in a private meeting in 2018 that a woman couldn’t win the presidency. He denies ever saying that, calling it “sad,” but Warren insists it was what she heard. Sanders supporters claim Warren is playing dirty. Again, welcome to politics, guys.

To listen to progressive operatives, you’d think they never saw this squaring-off coming, or that they hoped, somehow to stave it off until the bitter end. But it seems rather obvious that two candidates who were closely aligned politically and fighting over the same voters, donors and resources would eventually have to take on each other. The primary was never going to end like a twin-sister wedding, with both candidates walking down the aisle arm in arm....

It may be brutal. But it’s better to get the bloodbath over with so that voters can consolidate behind a strong front-runner and take on Trump. It’s about time Sanders and Warren consciously uncoupled—for the sake of their own candidacies, the Democratic primary, and perhaps the country.