And One More For The Road ...

I was momentarily stunned early last evening, watching 'Hardball', which was, essentially, aside from the Ted Kennedy homages, a pre-primary returns talkfest, when MSNBC's Chuck Todd (the numbers guru) prattled on how the Clinton Campaign must be kicking themselves, that Hillary didn't play this white, factory worker, Tom Joadesque character earlier in the campaign.

MATTHEWS: Well, here’s the delegate count. Senator Obama leads by 158 elected delegates. He leads by 24 superdelegates. NBC News has added 10 of Edwards’ pledged delegates, as Chuck said, to Obama’s total, based on published reports and discussions with some of the delegates themselves. And he leads now by 132 delegates overall.

You know, here’s the question. What do the Clintons think they’re doing here? Do they believe that Barack Obama has no chance to win in November; therefore, it explains their behavior to date, Chuck?

TODD: No. I think this is about legacy, two people’s legacy. One is Hillary Clinton’s legacy. She is now establishing herself as the woman that speaks for average working-class Americans, and that she has redefined her image a way that they would have killed for a year ago.

If they could have been this candidate now, where she is this fighter for the—the working-class, this blue-collar—you know, some want to describe her the Norma Rae of normal politics. If she could have been that person from the get-go, we might not be talking about—we might not be worrying about these late primaries. She might have already been the nominee.

Well, for one reason there, number-crunching Chuck, was, and up until Super Tuesday, Hillary, and the rest of the Clintonistas, assumed the nomination was just going to be handed to her.

No need for a "previously-owned" wardrobe, the Imelda Marcos-like collection of pantsuits would do just fine.

I doubt, before Ohio and Pennsylvania, Hillary was practicing throwing down shots, or hitting the shooting range.

And just how far down can you go, credibly, on that economic-social ladder, when you're tossing your own campaign $11-Million?

No saving coupons for Kraft's Macaroni-and-Cheese here.

So where are we now?

Obama has secured a lock on the delegate count, impossible for Hillary, no matter what metric they invent in the days ahead, including just counting her votes and not Obama's, to win the nomination via the primaries.

Barry Crimmins hit this (and was early, if not the first) nail square on the head back in April;

A huge portion of Obama's support comes from new and untested voters. Why should we trust these strangers to the polling place? And just how reliable will their choices be? This election is too important to allow it to be decided at the whim of inexperienced voters.

So this isn't just about counting Michigan's and Florida's properly-cast votes. And it isn't just about eliminating the votes of all of those states where there were caucuses or where Democrats shouldn't even campaign. It is about counting the votes of any of the people who conveniently surface whenever Barack Obama's name is on the ballot.

It's down to the Superdelegates, and, to the utter dismay of the Clintonistas, Obama has been scooping them up like a super-charged Roomba.

And there's a certain irony to that, being the Superdelegates were invented to do exactly what the Clinton Camp feverishly begs for - to turn over the results from the voters and hand it to the "correct" candidate.

Now, it is our humble opinion, if the situation were reversed, Hillary and Company would bring down the wrath of Armageddon to have Obama exit the race.

The Clintons would be relentless (much as they are now), hounding Obama (or any other candidate in the position), insisting, demanding, they leave ... Calling them out publically, loudly, berating them 24/7, for not taking the interest of the party ahead of their own.

Yet, while some calls for such have come for Hillary to sit down, it's in been lower and softer voices then used next to a sleeping baby.

We've got to give Hillary space ... Let her wind down on her own ...Let her go out on a high note ...

Since when did we have to give incredibly ego-gorged political candidates a soft landing?

"Are you crying? Are you crying? ARE YOU CRYING? There's no crying! THERE'S NO CRYING IN POLITICS!"

(Well ... Actually, there is ...)

Hillary Clinton has become that dinner party guest, the one you were leery to invite in the first place, the one who drank too much, too early, and is now the last guest still at the hosts' table, still drinking, still babbling, spouting off, also unintelligibly, and showing no signs of leaving, ignoring the hints that the hosts want her to go.

Hosts: "How about we call you a cab?"

Hillary (with head snapping up, having almost nodded off): Cab!? ... I don' wanna cab ... I can't ride a cab ...I'll only get in a cab if Michigan and Florida get cabs ... Can you give Michigan and Florida?...That'll do it ... That'll do it ...They need their own cabs ... They have to have their cabs counted ...

It's going to be hours, maybe days, before the hosts see that dinner guest leave their premises.

Only problem is, aside from calling a taxi, what else will they have to do, have to give, for the guest to leave?

Best suggestion is to just turn off the lights and go to bed ...

Ignore her ...

She'll sober up, realize what a spectacle she was, and leave, eventually ...

Perhaps, following the voice of Karl Rove, hearing Karl Rove calling out to her ...


Bonus Hillary Hijinx Links

The Hillary Deathwatch

John Cole: All About Me

Andrew Malcolm:
Money shocker! Hillary Clinton's campaign debt soars to $31 million

Hillary's Smelling Burning Rubber! Or: The Garlic Was Right - Hillary Has Built Her "Field of Voices"

What About On Day Two?

Top Ten Cloves: If Hillary Clinton Is A Monster, The Movies That Would Be Made About Her

Tinkerbell Meets Norma Rae - The Daily Kos Strike