The Undead

In the continuing mess that is the Clinton campaign, on Tuesday Hillary simultaneously refused to concede that Obama had won the primary, and let it be known that she wanted to be offered the vice presidency. While the rest of the world watched the first African-American in western politics win the nomination to be a major party candidate for head of government, Hillary and what Andrew Sullivan called her "Lifetime demographic" hid like Dick Cheney in a concrete bunker, devoid of televisions, cut off from Internet or cellphone signals that might carry news of Obama's triumphant appearance in St. Paul before a crowd of more than 30,000.

Emblematic of the graceless fumbling that characterized the evening, cheerleader-in-chief Terry McAuliffe introduced Clinton as "the next President of the United States," and with equal bad taste (or delusion) Clinton thanked South Dakota for the "last word" in the primary, even though Montana polls remained open for nearly a half hour longer.

Apparently the Clintons believed that their erstwhile supporters on Capitol Hill would magically stay with them, even after Obama had won the nomination. Like other political calculations during the primary, this one did not add up.

Early Wednesday morning, DNC chair Howard Dean, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and West Virginia Governor Joe Manchin issued a statement calling for all superdelegates to make a decision by Friday.

Wednesday evening NBC News and others reported that 23 members of congress and eight senators had called Clinton to warn her that if she did not withdraw from the race they would endorse Obama anyway. (Politico.com chronicled the day's events.) Yielding to pressure, the campaign finally announced first that Clinton would hold an event Friday "to thank her supporters and express her support for Sen. Obama and party unity." Still unable to quite let go, apparently, the event was moved to Saturday.

Former president Jimmy Carter weighed in on Clinton's flirtation with the vice presidency. "I think it would be the worst mistake that could be made," he said. "That would just accumulate the negative aspects of both candidates."

The Obama campaign announced that its vice presidential search would be headed by Caroline Kennedy, and would include former Fannie Mae CEO Jim Johnson, and former deputy attorney general Eric Holder. Politico.com's Ben Smith notes that "none of these figures are particularly close to the Clintons, and the choice of Kennedy in particular -- the scion of a different dynasty -- may help damp down speculation that Clinton is in the running."

Some commentators suggested that the team would likely require Bill Clinton to disclose the donor list to his presidential library, and other details of his business dealings before Hillary would be considered. The prospect of his consenting to the disclosures seemed unlikely.

Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal has a excellent post-mortem of the Clinton campaign. The main conclusion: Hillary has herself to blame for making a series of key political decisions, all of which turned out to be wrong.