As the saying goes, never underestimate the Democrats ability to lose.
No joke.
It is all about personal ambition after all.
For her it almost
certainly is at this point. I think he honestly is just a little bubble of hope and dreams and blah blah blah. I think if the roles were reversed he'd probably bow out or take the VP spot (if offered)...I don't think he'd hold out in the hopes that he could wrangle enough superdelegates to strongarm the win. Which is probably why of the two he's the one I'd most like to see given the shot; the old cliche about the kind of person who wants to be president isn't the kind of president we want, or however it goes. You're already hosed by the fact that you're limited to people willing to run, but Hillary is really going above and beyond in showing how important being (back) in the White House is to her.
But yeah, barring one or the other bowing out (I don't think she will and I don't think he
should) it's not really a mathematical possibility for this to be decided going into the convention. So the superdelegates
will choose the nominee on that day (and as I said elsewhere, I think that in general this is not a horrible outcome given a close enough race, and this one qualifies).
Going back-of-the-envelope, though, it looks like if primaries keep falling more or less the way they have been (not a horrible assumption) and the superdelegates who have already voice support don't switch (a little iffier, but let's go with it) she'd need to pull in the remaining superdelegates at like 2:1 to win. I just don't see it happening. I think for a variety of reasons (ranging from him being the stronger candidate to a lot of superdelegates being elected officials to everything in between) there's very little chance she's getting the nod.
And if she does? A McCain Presidency is a small price to pay to finally give the woman her shot and send her back to whatever she considers to be home nowadays. Heck, I'm not willing to say a McCain Presidency is any worse than Obama anyway (I'm
definitely not excited about either one), so whatever.
More interesting is what effect this will have in the general. The hopeful side of me thinks maybe a nice spirited Democratic race for the nomination will lead to more Democratic-leaning voters being active and interested for the general, as I'm still not so convinced they're as polarized as some claim (I think most Clinton voters would vote for Obama in the end and vice versa). And while campaigning against each risks damaging the eventual nominee for the general, on the other hand it means the nominee will
definitely have their game face on when they get the nod. McCain will probably have been coming off a nice nap by ten.