Putting A Marker Down ... Just In Case ....

Call me concerned ... Call me skeptical ...

I'll believe it when I see, and hear, it ...

Clinton to Publicly Withdraw, Support Obama

After a tumultuous 17-month journey, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.) will formally withdraw as a presidential candidate today, publicly declaring her support for Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.) for the first time since he secured the Democratic nomination.

She had the stage to do this earlier this week and simply ignored the reality, continuing to march forward.

Until she steps out there later today, a little more than a hour from now, says - in understandable, discernible, English - that she is ending (or suspending) her campaign, and directly, clearly endorses Barack Obama (and then, maybe, after a DNA test, to confirm it was the real Hillary Clinton), only then will I exhale.

As to moving ahead, it will remain to-be-seen, just how much support she puts out.

The media circus (and leave it to Hillary to require a media circus) that is gathering for this event today, the anticipation, the hype, all the stories about her still-seething supporters, adds up to a possible classic Clintonean double-back, hold-the-phone, I've-re-evaluated-the-situation, I-won-the-popular-vote, I'm-still-in-it kind-of move.

Holy Chaotic Convention, Batman ...

Stay Tuned, Bat Fans!


Bonus Hillary Links

Barry Crimmins: 18 million hostages?

The Most Fabulous Object In The World

Top Ten Cloves: Other Ways Hillary Clinton Can Ignore She Lost Primary Race

Made It Ma, Top of the Campaign! ...

Made It Ma, Top of the Campaign! ...

Or, Hillary Clinton's Cody Jarrett Moment

My, My, My ...

The theatrics, the anguish, it's taking to end this thing

The Most Fabulous Object In The World (TMFOITW), according to the breaking news over the past few hours, has, finally, popped her head out of her own bubble and caught a scent of the unrelenting condemnation she was receiving today, and will (we still have to wait-and-see) end her campaign on Friday and Saturday.

The WWW and Blogosphere was lit up like a Christmas tree, virtually since "The Speech" last evening.






















Even the staunchest of TMFOITW supporters were bucking against her.

Now, there can be some validity to the whole notion of you can't stop a freight train on a dime, that TMFOITW couldn't put the brakes on, on a moments notice, but that does little to luminate her actions, when applied to what Hillary did last evening.

She allowed (granted, it may have been improvised, but, either way, it was specious) the campaign's mouth-that-roared, Terry McAuliffe, to introduce her as "The next President of the United States" and than TMFOITW proceeded to give, essentially, another stump speech, completely ignoring the history of the evening, of Barack Obama going over the number of won delegates to secure the nomination.

She then proceeded to egg on, to lead on, her supporters, offering no concession, no surrender, no acknowledgment that she lost the fight, ending with encouraging people to come to her website and tell her, share with her, what she should do next.

How's this for the history that was ignored by TMFOITW;

Will Bunch's Attytood - People died so tonight could happen

This is just to say how remarkable it is that a man who wasn't even guaranteed the right to vote when he was born is now the Democratic nominee for the White House -- and to say thank you to the people who fought and who even gave their lives to make this moment happen.

Keith Olbermann reported this evening that, it was only after two conference calls, one from 23 members of Congress, the other from 8 in the Senate - and that members, advisors of TMFOITW reached out to these people, imploring them to talk to her - that this outcome was arrived at.

Apparently it wasn't enough to know that Obama had won the most delegates, TMFOITW had to hear, from her colleagues, that they were not going to stand by and aid or abet TMFOITW in her attempt to hijack the nomination.

Clinton to Suspend Campaign, Endorse Obama Friday

The news that Mrs. Clinton was ending her campaign was first reported by ABCNEWS.com

“We pledged to support her to the end,” Representative Charles B. Rangel, a New York Democrat who has been a patron of Mrs. Clinton since she first ran for the Senate, said in an interview “Our problem is not being able to determine when the hell the end is.”

WOW!

The Clintonistas, particularly, Lisa Caputo, was out this evening, still banging the TMFOITW drum, explaining away her actions and behavior as no big deal, as if it we perfectly a normal occurance to have a candidate ignore the fact that they lost the election (well, there is Mini-Me., Joe Lieberman).

As many have already stated, Hillary Clinton's loss in this contest isn't the end of woman running for high office, it is, by all rights, just the beginning.

The sky isn't going to fall in if TMFOITW doesn't become president this year.

Hillary had the choice to be placed in history as a pioneering trailblazer, or a sore, delusional loser.

She'll likely attain the former, but with the latter as a footnote.

"Made It Ma, Top of the Campaign! ..."

So, a few more days of drama, more fodder for the cable news bobbleheads and then, hopefully, it's full speed ahead to the General Election.

And Stumblin' Bumblin' John McCain.


Bonus Fat Lady Warming Up To Sing Links

Wonkette: Hillary To Concede By Friday, For Real

David Kurtz: The End?

John Cole: Tone Deaf Until The End

Libby: I was going to call her Virtuous - Updated

Wolcott: Nixon in a pantsuit


Bonus Bonus

James Cagney in White Heat - Top of the World




Watch The Entire Movie - White Heat (108 min)

Top Ten Cloves: Other Ways Hillary Clinton Can Ignore She Lost Primary Race

News Item: In Defeat, Clinton Graciously Pretends to Win

10. Go around with her fingers in her ears, shouting out "Na, Na, Na, Na Na" ... "I can't hear you" ... "Na, Na, Na, Na Na"

9. Spend the days ahead sending messages, to herself, that "Hillary Won" on HillaryClinton.Com

8. Start parsing the word "lost", being, "It depends on what the meaning of the word 'lost' is"

7. Could have husband and daughter led her around, blindfolded, and wearing earplugs

6. Clarify her statement "anything can happen" to include, "Except her losing the primary to Obama"

5. Listen, and listen only to Terry McAuliffe and Lanny Davis

4. Keep baselessly claiming, she's won the popular vote, she's won more states, she's won the swing states, she's won ...

3. Install, in her home and office, one of those gameshow soundproof booths

2. Dodge the news that she lost, the same way she dodged all that sniper fire

1. Cry and throw a crying tantrum until Barack Obama, and the DNC, say "Okay, we'll let you win it"


Bonus "It's Not How You Play The Game, But How You Lose" Links

Anonymous Liberal: Clinton's Classless Speech

Michael Crowley: In the Clinton Bunker

Noam Scheiber: That Outrageous, Delusional Clinton Speech

Andrew Sullivan: The Clintons Threaten

Chris Cillizza: What Went Wrong for Clinton?

Oh Yeah, She Will "Do What It Takes", Alright ...

Last evening, and this morning, the cable new pundits are all drooling over themselves, pontificating and speculating on how Hillary Clinton will "graceful" exit the presidential race, once Obama goes over the magic number of won delegates.

All complete with the talk of unity, the good and bad of her campaign, how she is, despite losing, a role model for future woman candidates (most definitely true), all rosy prognostications of a Capraesque-framed shot of "out with the old, in with new" kind of thing.

Well, I'm not holding my breath that it all ends, tonight, or tomorrow.

From CNN;

Sen. Hillary Clinton is poised to deliver a message Tuesday "that she will do whatever it takes" to put a Democrat in the White House — a message that Barack Obama insiders say indicates she would accept an offer to be Obama's running mate if asked.

"In her speech tomorrow night, she will convey the message that first and foremost she is committed to Democrats winning in November and will do whatever she's asked to do," a close friend and adviser of the former first lady, who speaks with her regularly and is privy to her deliberations, told CNN Monday.

You can throw out that BS about Obama asking her to be VP ... It ain't happenin'

But, notice she's using the generic "Democrat", not using the name "Barack Obama"?

Oh yeah, she'll do what it takes, alright ...

The words "I am suspending my campaign" may squeeze through her teeth, with all the same ease of how she has explained her vote for the Iraq War.

I will expect whatever type of speech Hillary gives tonight, it will be parsed, calculated, triangulated, giving a tepid nod to Barack Obama, but then saddling up and riding the rhetorical horse she's been on over the past few months ...

I won the popular vote

More people have voted for me than any other primary election in history

I won the big states

I won the swing states

I won the states the Democrats are going to need to win in November

We need to count all the votes, not disenfranchise voters.

I'm fighting for the voters in Florida and Michigan

I am the better candidate

I am the better candidate to beat the Republicans in November

Superdelegates can change their mind

Anything (even assassination) can happen, between now and the convention

I'm a fighter, not a quitter

There will be no shrine-building to Barack Obama in her speech, in her position.

She's not closing the door, no way Jose!

It's too close for her to shut down. She wants it too much, and she is not the least bit concerned about what a continued battle will do to the Democratic Party, likely arguing that it is a healthy sign of Democracy, that people are engaged and, did you know, over 17-million people have voted for her, that she was won the popular vote ...

I don't know what the pundits are seeing, but I haven't (and I have cleaned my glasses, over-and-over) seen anything that indicates Hillary is about to put herself on the shelf.

As we said yesterday, we had all the delusional Clintonistas, in their best Grand Central Station Locker Creatures (from the Movie "Men In Black), making the cable news rounds with all their unbridled enthusiasm, ("Hillary is back! The keeper of the light! All hail Hillary! All hail Hillary! Oh Hillary can you see by the dawn's early light..."), still trying to sell the "Hillary's winning the popular vote! ... It's the popular vote that should count! ..."

After all, Hillary Clinton is "The Most Fabulous Object In The World".

It will not be a concession speech tonight, especially if the split the vote, Obama winning Montana, and Hillary taking South Dakota.

I hope I am wrong, dead wrong, and will have no problem eating crow tomorrow.

But if I have to flip a coin on how the next 24-48-hours plays out, Hillary is still muscling herself into the picture, and setting her sights on creating a photo album of her time in Denver later this summer.


More The Most Fabulous Object In The World Links

Marc Ambinder - The End: How It Happens

John Aravosis: Hillary is now rallying her major donors to help her stay in the race for a long, long time

Barry Crimmins: Metriculous

And One More For The Road ...

UPDATE

As I was readying to post this, the cable news bobbleheads were all in atwitter, first, babbling endlessly about how and when Hillary would bow out, and then, over an AP report indicating Hillary Clinton was, indeed, going to concede this evening.

They couldn't rush in enough talking heads to hash over this and, then, the inevitable denial came from the Clinton Camp;

Wolfson denies AP report

UPDATE: Here's the campaign statement: "The AP story is incorrect. Senator Clinton will not concede the nomination this evening."

As Bette Davis said, "Fasten your seatbelts, it's going to be a bumpy night!"