Ergotism

The Clinton campaign is now spreading the meme that if Hillary doesn’t win North Carolina, she might have to quit. Why?

Remember, she said that she had to quit if she didn’t win Ohio and Texas, and she lost Texas, and she didn’t actually quit. But also remember that at the time she said it, she was polling ahead in Texas, and probably expected to win it. Right now, she’s polling behind in North Carolina.

Everybody else knows that Hillary can’t win the nomination without a freak event disabling the Obama campaign permanently. But it’s the nature of a campaign to always believe that despite the mountain of evidence against them, that their candidate has a chance to win. Joe Biden believed it. Ron Paul believed it. And Hillary Clinton believed it, but maybe she’s starting to soften.

Is she setting herself up with a narrative that allows her to quit with some veneer of respectability? Admitting that she had to quit because it just didn’t work out in North Carolina sounds nicer than the real truth, that the Obama campaign outmaneuvered her on all fronts from the beginning, and that their candidate is more appealing because he’s more honest and more progressive.

I predict that the Clinton campaign shuts it down some time between May 6th and May 10th.