She also knows that her hardcore supporters really believe that Obama must put her on the ticket, but she doesn't really want it and knows Obama doesn't want it, either.  So, how does she make it impossible for her to be VP?  By acting ungracious, not conceding, imply that she's willing to take the fight to the convention, have Terry McAuliffe introduce her as the next president.  And the result?

Her own supporters have come out today to criticize Hillary's seemingly unseemly campaign for the vice presidency.  More of her supers have switched to Obama.  Essentially, by being unreasonable about the VP slot, she is giving cover to her supers to switch on over to Obama.  I'm thinking of Ed Rendell, Hillary Rosen, Barbara Boxer, Charlie Rangel, etc.  

And here's the important effect of these very high profile Clinton-ite defections.  It makes it much, much harder for her diehard supporters to claim that Obama and his male allies are denying her what she deserves, the VP slot, because of sexism.   It's pretty hard to make this argument when really loyal Clinton-ites like Rendell and Rosen publicly say that they don't think Hillary can bargain for the VP, and that she shouldn't use her supporters as bargaining chips.  

Basically, she's laid down the foundations for her to concede in a way that diffuses some of the fighting energy among her core base.  Additionally, look what's happening - she's actually unifying the party!  Clinton and Obama supporters are indeed coming together behind Obama, and doing it much more quickly, perhaps, if she had been gracious and conceded last night, when a lot of her supporters still have very strong, raw feelings.

By being the "bad girl," she diffuses that energy, and gives even more reason for the dem leaders, Pelosi, Reid, and Dean, to pressure the supers to move more quickly to coalesce around Obama.  And that is what's been occurring.  

I'm not sure I completely buy this theory, but, it's plausible, especially since all signs point to her shutting down her campaign and all signs point to her being supportive of Obama.   It makes a lot of sense, and I'm the first one to recognize that this is a kind of brilliant move that only the Clintons could pull off.  Essentially, she's using triangulation for the good of the party, where she is playing the role of the extreme third party to bring her supporters and Obama supporters together.  

If this is in fact what she is doing, I give her a ton of credit.  She's actually sacrificing her own public image for the sake of the party.  And if I'm right, she will conceded very soon and in a very gracious and enthusiastic fashion.  

We'll see what happens.  But, even if Hillary isn't intentional taking one for the team, the effect has been, nevertheless, to unify the party.