Happy Throw In The Towel Day!

All indicators are pointing to the fact that once results are in from the final Democratic primary states today, Hillary Clinton will at last end her long race for the nomination. As Wesley Pruden writes in today's WaPo:

All day yesterday the gossips, bloggers and other blowhards buzzed with the news that the last dog had died, that it was time to put out the cat, dim the light in the hall and bank the fire in the cookstove. The worker bees were told to turn in their final expense accounts, stuff their stale underwear in their briefcases, buy one final ticket home and gather tonight at Appomattox Court House for the ritual obsequies.

I think it's about time. (It's actually way past time, but I'm trying to be magnanimous here.) Even her husband seemed ready to admit the obvious yesterday. "I want to say," Bill told a crowd in South Dakota, "that this may be the last day I'm ever involved in a campaign of this kind. I thought I was out of politics, till Hillary decided to run. But it has been one of the greatest honors of my life to go around and campaign for her for president."

I have long had much respect for Senator Clinton, and strongly considered supporting her campaign as recently as last January. But I think the voters and delegates have spoken, and I believe that Barack Obama now has the best chance to effect a real, positive change from the politics of arrogance and deception that have been the hallmark of the Bush administration, and that Hillary is at last ready to face the rising tide of reality.

Or is she? The Chicago Sun-Times this morning advises its readers, "don't expect a concession speech from Sen. Hillary Clinton tonight, no matter the returns from South Dakota and Montana," and reports that her staff is still busy trying to woo financial backers and push her message that she's the only person capable of defeating John McCain in November. For her part, speaking yesterday after winning the Puerto Rico primary by a large margin, Hillary told her supporters: "My political obituary has yet to be written, and we're going forward. It is not over 'til it's over."

We'll see tonight, but trust me ... it's over. Somewhere off in the distance, I hear the fat lady singing.


Footnote 6/6: "Throw In The Towel Day" has been postponed until Saturday.