Agreed - it's better for him for her to stay.

Well, Huckabee won a few states after McCain was the presumptive nominee...

No one even remembers it now...

It happens all the time... it's not a big deal, really....

She can stay in as long as she wants... She's at least not kneecapping Obama anymore, so it's fine... although the tone of her campaign is still too unseemly for my taste... it's not as bad as it was a few weeks ago...

How will it look?

Who cares? The beauty of going into "General Election Time" is that the fickle nature of the 24-hour news cycle ceases to matter as much, until, say, September.

It'd be a day of bad press, but so what? Better to avoid it, but if Hillary wins the better half of West Virginia's 28 delegates, and tries painting this as some sort of game changer -- and the press goes along -- that's worse. And significantly more annoying.

But the time is really for getting down to brass tacks, going after McCain and building the infrastructure needed to drown the GOP in some kind of positive, pro-Democratic tidal wave.

And honestly, that's the reason I'd like to see Hillary stay in for a bit. Just so that all the states get the deep loving that comes from these late primaries -- and all the grassroots building that comes from it.

I'd hate to see that aid the delusion though. Politico has the Clinton campaign suggesting some 80-20 or 90-10 win in the offing -- something I think should be taken with a grain of salt. As most of things from the Clinton camp at this point.

Huckabee won Kansas and the media didn't peep.

Clinton wins WV and she will spin it as the voice of the white working class vote, rather than a more complex question of regional and cultural identity in Appalachia- a narrative that the media will likely perpetuate.

The spin of a W.V. loss is more harmful to Obama with Clinton still contesting the nomination than it would be with her having conceded.

When Hillary stops making the media concentrate on each contest, the media will shift to general election mode.

in their first round of balloting on Super Tuesday, and 1% in the second round, behind Romney and the winner, Huckabee.

Yup, as goes WV, so goes the nation.

(PS, if Huck's still on the ballot, who'd like to bet he'll win again on Tues?)

As long as no one can produce a list of 2025 or 2209  delegates (if you view this as a 48 vs a 50-state contest), Hillary is still in the contest.  If the superdelegates were as "decisive" as the media elite, they would also have come out of the shadows and publicly declared for Obama, thus ending this race for good.  But as we can see, there are still a significant number of superdelegates who have chosen to remain either "undecided" or worse, "undeclared" (like the spineless Donna Brazile).  They have their reasons, but they also know that by withholding their vote is also "destroying" the unity and the very fabric of the Democratic Party, as Gene Robinson, Frank Rich, and his entitled cohorts claim.

Hillary should remain in the race, because it is simply not over.  If you disagree with this, go write those hundreds of spineless superdelegates who have remained strangely "neutral" at this point in the race.

Besides, it seems like he could use the face time with voters in WV and KY.

I don't think Obama actually has a race problem so much as he has a regional problem. White voters out here in the Midwest really like him. Even Republican friends think he seems like a good guy. Maybe it's because his mother's from Kansas, I don't know, but he just connects very easily with people here. But they do not like him in Appalachia. Maybe it's partly racism, or xenophobia, or the elitist perception, or maybe his communication style just doesn't mesh with theirs so well. It's a big country, no one's style is going to resonate everywhere. But he could clearly use the practice relating to this region, this is a good opportunity to do it and he has the money anyway. He should go out there and talk to them, IMHO.

they'd be willing to take that chance. With the obviously consistent flow of SDs, it's becoming pretty obvious that he'd rather have this end.

Since the NC/IN primaries on 05/06, Obama has a net gain of 29 SDs, Clinton has a net gain of 2.

From DemConWatch:

5-12-08 - Added Rep. Tom Allen (ME) for Obama

• Added DNC Dolly Strazar (HI) for Obama
  
• Added Sen. Daniel Akaka (HI) for Obama
  
• Added Idaho Democratic Party Chair DNC R. Keith Roark (ID) for Obama

5-11-08 - Added DNC Crystal Strait (CA) for Obama

5-10-08 - - Added new Utah addon Kristi Cumming(UT)# for Obama

• Added DNC Carol Burke (VI) for Obama
  
• Switched DNC Kevin Rodriguez (VI) from Clinton to Obama.
  
• Added Ohio add-on Dave Regan (OH)# for Obama
  
• Added Massachusetts add-on Arthur Powell (MA)# for Clinton
  
• Added Rep. Harry Mitchell (AZ) for Obama

5-9-08 - Switched Rep. Donald Payne (NJ) from Clinton to Obama

• Added Rep. Peter DeFazio (OR) for Obama
  
• Added Rep. Chris Carney for Clinton
  
• Added DNC John Gage (MD) for Obama
  
• Added DNC Edward Espinoza (CA) (aka Mr. Super) for Obama
  
• Added DNC Vernon Watkins (CA) for Obama
  
• Added DNC Wilbur Lee Jeffcoat (SC) for Obama
  
• Added New Mexico add-on Laurie Weahkee (NM)# for Obama
  
• Added Rep. Mazie Hirono (HI) for Obama
  
• Added DNC Joe Johnson (VA) for Obama. Obama campaign confirmed his endorsement.
  
• Added Rep. Ciro Rodriguez (TX) for Clinton.

5-8-08 - Added Rep. Brad Miller (NC) for Obama
- Added Rep. Rick Larsen (WA) for Obama

5-7-08 - Added Rep. Heath Shuler (NC) for Clinton.

• Added DNC Jerry Meek (NC) and DNC Inola Henry (CA) for Obama
  
• Added add-on Dan Gelber (FL)# for Obama
  
• Switched DNC Jennifer McClellan (VA) from Clinton to Obama after getting confirmation from the Obama campaign. We are awaiting confirmation from the Clinton campaign on Rep. Brad Ellsworth (IN) who reportedly endorsed her today.

5-6-08 - Added IL add-ons Barbara Flynn Currie (IL)# and Todd Stroger (IL)# for Obama.
- Added DNC Jeanette Council (NC) for Obama

I think this is a lot more orchestrated at this point than we would like to recognize.  People keep reporting the Clinton knows it is over.  Several of her backers have said it will be over when the primaries are over (another wording for she cannot win).  Clinton has said her and Obama's campaign are in talks.  I imagine it has already been agreed on that she is ending her bid after a victory in Kentucky.

Obama should have been campaigning harder in West Virginia.  Taking a day off on Wednesday to spend with the kids is fine but why spend all of Thursday in D.C.?  Hillary spent some time in D.C. on Wednesday and still managed a trip to West Virginia.  Why take all of Mother's Day off?  Just take the kids with you to Wonderful West Virginia.

The spreadsheet projected a  56-44 loss; that result may have been conceivable had he campaigned there on Wednesday, Sunday, and spent more time there today.

Axelrod dropped the ball on this one in my opinion; I suppose it could be argued that what West Virgnia is for Hillary is what Iowa is to Obama (McCain didn't compete in those two states).

People don't like voting for a loser, and whether she'll recognize it or not, Hillary has for all intents and purposes lost this race for the nomination.

I don't expect Obama to win, but I do think that anyone believing Hillary is going to win by 30 or 40 per cent in these last few states is deluding themselves.

Obama should want Clinton to stay because it is the right tihng to do. Let Clinton stay until June 3. There is nothing stopping the other DEmocrats from launching attacks  on McCain right now. Also there is nothing stopping Hillary to start attacking McCain to a greater degree.

should if she wants to and stays positive. Obama losing WV and KY with or without Hillary still in the race doesn't make a difference I think.

As for spending time in WV, I think he's there today, and he has really done a lot since NC/IN. His visit to Washington was very successful, talking to superdelegates and more important making it clear he was the presumptive nominee without saying so. He's also made a successful pivot into general election mode, setting up strategy, proposing the town hall meetings with McCain, and announcing trips to MI and FL.

I do wish he'd spent a little more time in WV, but frankly he's not going to convince many people there that aren't presently going to vote for him in the week that he had. It's going to take a lot more than that to sway some people.

I'm glad to see things settling down. Hillary should be congratulated on her big win tomorrow. I'm going to try to be patient, despite the tendency to want this over, for the next 3 weeks.

Yep, I would not be surprised if:
There are superdelegates that have told Obama that they support him
Have given him the option to reveal them at the time he thinks best
Obama has decided not to announce a lot of the names until after June 3rd

There will still be dissent when he wins the nomination, but there will be less opportunity to say that Hillary was forced out too early.

It is really stunning to me at this point, whether Hillary is in or out, that Obama the supposed nominee and frontrunner is still getting beat by huge numbers anywhere in the waning days of the primaries.  In what universe does that happen?  What does it say about Obama's candidacy. Not much and a whole lot at the same time.

If Huckabee was winning more states at the end of the republican primaries than McCain, what would we be thinking about the republicans and McCain?  We would be thinking maybe the republicans made a mistake and don't really want their presumptive nominee.

I could see if WV was a home state for one of the  candidates accounting for why now Hillary is ahead-- but it's very embarrassing for Obama when neither candidate have a real connection to the state and he is still so far behind after the media coverage that has been bestowed upon him since NC.

He has been literally named the nominee by the media and he's still going to get trounced in WV?

It's gonna be a long, rough general and road to the WH is all I have to say.

I personally feel that with so few states left, it is to Obama's advantage to campaign hard in them.  Clinton dropping out now would remove that incentive.  The last two states are just three weeks away.  We can wait a little longer.

Just a thought, but I've been wondering why he hasn't been campaigning there at all.  Maybe he decided that the extra delegate or two he could gain wouldn't be as important as letting Clinton have a nice, easy victory in a state in order to start to lower tensions.  It's just a thought.

I don't think it particularly matters to Obama whether Clinton stays or not at this point.

Losing to someone not in the race? It's happened.

Nobody but the most hardcore of political junkies would even notice or care.

Is Hillary staying to prepare for a run as an independent?

in 1992 when Tsongas won New York after dropping out.

Biggest embarrassment ever!  How would the Governor of Arkansas win over coastal Democratic voters in November?

The end is near!

As long as the superdelegates continue to flow to Obama, even after the meaningless contest in West AppalachiaLand, nobody cares.  And they will.

I think it's great that Hillary is staying in the race.  I just hope Bill and her plan on paying off those debts themselves.  It ain't going to be pretty.

congratulate her on a well-played primary contest, and then focus on McCain.

This is what I hope Obama will do early Tuesday night.  Let Clinton bask for an evening in a show of her campaign's still considerable support.  It does nothing to hurt his lock on the nomination.  But keep the focus on McCain.  McCain, McCain, McCain... and all the reasons why he's a dangerous demogogue.

I want the Clinton supporters to know that this Obama supporter remains fully cognizant of her strength as a campaigner.  You can be a strong politician and still lose the nomination.

This subject of this diary was pointed out last week by pundits immediately after Obama's big Tuesday.

I and others have said it here as well.

The point has never been Hillary remaining a candidate or not. It's been the scurrilous and divisive tactics she employs -- in a lost cause no less.

How would it look?

It would like they were all a bunch of dead-ender hillbillies.

That wouldn't be true, of course, but that's how it would look.

Just like when Puerto Rico votes in favor of Hillary also.  They'll look like a bunch of clueless islanders, isolated from the mainstream of American politics, if she has given up her pointless quest.

That wouldn't be true either, but that's the impression that would be left.

So, I agree, Hillary should stay in.  Even with a $20 million campaign debt.  Rock on, Dona Quixote!  Keep tilting at those windmills!

We don't want to make fellow Democratic voters look like dummies.

Both those polls show convincing wins but do you realize that anything less than a 70-30 now actually makes her winning the nomination MORE DIFFICULT?  With few races remaining, she must take all of them by 70% to gain ground.  And these are the most favorable matchups remaining and she's below the threshold she needs to pick up ground toward the nomination even there.  Sorry but that's how the math works.

As Don Meredith used to sing on Monday Night Football...  "Turn out the lights, the party's oooooooover."

That's how he won he's always won - uncontested. Remember Alice Palmer and then Jack Ryan?

Hillary is indeed doing Obama a very valuable service by staying in through WV, KY and PR. And to her credit, she's taking all sorts of heat for staying in, while Obama benefits. Note that none of that heat is coming from the Obama campaign, which is sitting back and waiting patiently for OR, MT, and SD.

It would have been quite a bit better all the way around if Hillary hadn't thrown in the "hard-working white people" line, but that's now water under the bridge.

In the future, my hope is that Hillary and Bill will play a healing role and help their hard-working rural white constituents understand that Obama, and not McCain, is the best advocate for their interests, and best by a "country mile".

McCain's corporate economic positions are pure poison to the very demographic that will deliver Hillary's upcoming 3 landslide victories.

Maybe that's one of the reason's Obama has never asked her to drop out

Meh, Huckabee won a state or two after he'd dropped out, didn't he? "Electability" is no longer an issue in the general election. Nobody's going to vote for McCain over Obama because they think that certain regional or socioeconomic groups will refuse to vote for Obama.

I think the important point Todd might be breezing over a bit too quickly is that Hillary staying in is only even marginally theoretically beneficial if she plays nice... which she hasn't been, and which she honestly COULDN'T if she wanted to, because there are plenty of supporters out there who will fight tooth and nail until she finally concedes. (Anyone who glances at the Rec list on this site could quickly come up with a few examples.)

As long as Hillary is in the race even nominally, there are going to be a fair amount of DEMOCRATIC ACTIVISTS spending a lot of energy making Obama look bad. Heck, even if she dropped out today I'm not sure Alegre and some others would have time to come around to Obama's camp before the general.

I think the best solution I've heard so far is for Clinton to take her wins tomorrow and on the 20th and then bow out gracefully on a high note: she can concede in a state she's just won in a landslide, and in so doing make it clear that she's made this decision not out of weakness or inadequacy, but as a strong tactical decision to do what's best for the Democratic party and for the nation.

I don't think that Hillary, as of yet, is doing any favors for Obama.

WV and Kentucky (never lived in WV did live in Louisville for a couple of years) wins won't change what is already done.

The game has been played and as long as no one is changing the rules after the fact, something that some would like to see, it has been won.  

Of course that is the crux of it no?  As long as the media and parrots buy the talking points that there is still some plays left to be played there is still a change.  Of course this doesn't change the fact that a touchdown will bring you close to the final score, it still isn't enough to win.

Obama has won the game, and he did so against very very extreme odds.  You can spin it however makes you feel better but a black man running against a Clinton for the democratic nomination...that is some pretty long odds.

I do not belittle what Hillary has done, but the name in and of itself and her entire political machine has been built over a few decades.  She was and is an intrinsic part of the Washington machine.

Which in this election is a liability.

Politics is broken.  Fundamentally so.  Obama is changing the rules from large donors to small.  I wonder if the powers that be would have ever pushed to make public the internet if they had known what kind of effect it would have on the establishment...

Despite having very good Clinton years in this country, I just can not see putting someone else in the WhiteHouse that is a product of such a broken system.

Change has to happen.  And not just more of the same in a new pant suit.

It's bad enough for Obama that he hasn't been able to completely shut the door on Hillary, though he has been proclaimed the presumptive nominee by most of the left blogosphere and the media for weeks now...if he were still to lose big after she dropped out it would expose his weaknesses even more glaringly...

I'm confused....
 Does Obama really want Hillary to stay in the race? I thought he was trying to force Hillary out of the race early! I'm just a high school graduate who gets all tired out from my hard work down at the factory. No wait, that hasn't been true since NAFTA. Let me try that again... I'm just a shiftless welfare cheat selling crack cocaine and waiting for my reparations... No, that's not believable - welfare reform has my baby momma working 3 jobs to support me.

Well, in any case - pick a story and stick to it, the constant changing makes it too complicated! I can't decide which one not to believe the most.

I expect this site, and the crazy Hillary supporters on it, to continue in this vein for the next four years, arguing that Hillary should have been President, would have been President if we used the old Russian system, and finally, that Hillary is actually the President!

You all need meds!

... the voters and the superdelegates are SO fooled by this strategy!