We Won't Have Hillary To Kick Around Anymore?

Based on the fact that Sen. Clinton took a conciliatory tone toward Sen. Obama during Thursday's debate (err, at the end anyway), some people seem to be taking her comments as a silent concession, a sign that she acknowledged the end of the race is near for her. I didn't get that impression at all, and I would like to introduce these people to the Clintons. These people, meet the Clintons... two folks who have come too far to give up so easily.

Becoming President has been her life's ambition for a while now-- and the assumption that it was her due is why she never prepared for a real campaign-- and I just don't see her walking away so easily. My gut does tell me that she won't fight this all the way to the convention in August-- which would risk damaging the party-- but if she sees an opening to fight this in the next month or two, she will take it.

Since I ripped on the National Review so much yesterday, I'll link to a post (by James Robbins) that gets the facts right, at least. It notes that while Obama does have a significant lead over Clinton in the delegate count, he himself is still has a way to go to get the number needed to secure the nomination (he has only 1,319 out of the needed 2,025). Now, Clinton dropping out or Edwards sending his delegates over to Obama would end that problem, but for now he still has a hill to climb.

Her strategy seems to be to try and get the delegate count as close as possible, so that she could justify using the superdelegates-- or 'automatic delegates' as Team Clinton is attempting to rebrand them-- to clinch the nomination for her. Granted, even this route seems tougher than planned, but her non-answer to the superdelegate controversy in the debate indicated she still believes in this strategy. Moreover, the website her team set up offering 'Facts and Myths about the Race for Delegates in the Democratic Nomination' indicates how seriously they are taking this fight.

Now, maybe she will drop out after March 4 if she loses Texas, as many people have speculated (even Bill Clinton hinted at the possibility). But I am very skeptical. Hell, she's already blowing off the whole damn state! Here's a quote from a few days ago... tell me if something sounds familiar about it. She said, "I'd love to carry Texas, but it's usually not in the electoral calculation for the Democratic nominee. Florida and Michigan are". Ahhhh. There's the Hillary Clinton that I know. We'll still have her to kick around for a while longer.

[PS- TPM's Josh Marshall has a good video analyzing the state of the race.

UPDATE: Still think she'll go quietly into the night? Then watch this video.]