And chief among them is Slick Hillary Clinton.

If she had the guts to admit her obsessive campaign that began in January, 2001 has failed, she could bow out gracefully, endose Obama and (perhaps) have a legitimate chance to try again in 2012. You see, if she does that, she is is someone who withdrew for the sake of the party, not a failed candidate. That would mean she would be a legitimate contender in 2012, especially if Obama gets beaten in 2008 (which I see as being likely; there are too many good issues McCan can hammer him with).

But if, as seems probable, she fights it out to the bitter end and a defeat at the national convention, she will be tarred with the "failed candidate" brush. For the past fifty years, the attitude of the Democrats seems to be, "You get one shot at getting the top slot on the ticket. If you fight to the end and don't get picked, that's it. You're done as a contender. You've failed.

"And if you are picked for the top slot and then fail at the polls, you're done as a nominee, period." They learned from Adlai Stevenson being beaten three times at the polls, you see. Look at what happened to Al Gore and Hubert Humphrey. Lose the general election, and the best you can hope for is to hang onto a Senate seat.

If Slick Hillary had the political smarts her adoring Clintonistas claim she does, she'd know the smart move is to fold up the tent and concede the primaries to Obama. That way, win or lose she could lick her wounds, rebuild a war chest (assuming anyone will take her seriously after this year), try to establish some credibility by actually writing some meaningful, useful bills and pushing them through into law that have no connection with anything she or her scumbag husband did between 1992 and 2000, and try again when Obama is out of the picture, be that in 2012 or 2016. But she does not seem to be that smart. Or perhaps she just can't believe, to paraphrase Sally Field, that "... they really don't LIKE me! The People really don't LIKE me!"