It is possible that her hideous speech last night was not an attempt by Hillary Clinton to leverage her impressive popular support into a vice presidential nod.
Based on this report by TNR's Michael Crowley, and on reports of the insular, bubble-like environment of the Clinton campaign, it is entirely possible that she actually thinks she won the nomination.
In the bunker there exists a different reality. In the bunker, Hillary is the winner: of the popular vote, of a series of big swing states, of the authentic American vote. In the bunker, Hillary is introduced by the indefatiguable Terry McAuliffe as "the next President of the United States!" When asked about the reality outside the bunker—that Obama supporters were in a minor rage over Hillary’s speech-- McAuliffe looked at me incredulously. “Tonight was Hillary’s night!” he exclaimed. “We won tonight! We won in South Dakota! We keep winning!”We keep winning.
How do you even begin to analyze that? Is Terry McAuliffe a liar or a lunatic?
Well, the primaries are over. Obama won. If there is any sanity left in our media environment, Clinton, McAuliffe, and Howard Wolfson will find nobody interested in hearing what they have to say anymore. But nobody should expect them to fade away voluntarily. They will have to be shown the door.
Pat Buchanan observed this morning on MSNBC that Obama can and should take the initiative on this front by selecting a VP sooner rather than later. Otherwise, his message will be drowned out by the debate over whether Hillary should be his running mate. It is all anybody will want to talk about until it is no longer an issue.
I think Buchanan is correct. There is no painless way to get Hillary Clinton off the stage. She is going to hang on with teeth and claws for as long as she can. It is going to be messy no matter when he deals with it, so he might as well do it soon. Then, he will have time to heal what wounds can be healed between now and November.
