Denver Boot

No true concessions tonight. Of course it wasn’t going to happen. We’re not even out of the gate, and the results are in jeopardy of being nullified because of a classic but unfortunate UTI–a Unity Track Infection.

The AP declared this morning that Hillary was going to concede tonight. Free at last? Our long national nightmare is over?

Not so much. Terry McAuliffe fired back promptly that this story was a canard. No retreat, no surrender. Even as the superdelegates continued to trickle in, moving Obama toward that hallowed non-Clinton goal line of 2,118.

The Clinton campaign had cancelled all appearances beyond this week, sent a personal email to senior supporters and donors to come to New York City for her Important Speech on Tuesday, and notified staffers that they were done but would be paid through the 15th of the month, and to make sure they got their expense reimbursement requests in by the end of the week.

Then…just more stirring the hornet’s nest.

I came in midway through her “Hello Goodbye” speech this evening, and what I saw immediately spelled doom for party unity. “I don’t know where we go from here…” Hmm, I don’t know. Back to Chappequa? To D.C. to meet with Barack Obama to decide how she’ll support him in the fall? Back to the hotel for a tall glass of bourbon to congratulate herself on a campaign well (albeit at times ruthlessly) fought?

Nope. She put the ball on the tee and the audience launched it onto the fareway. Where are we going to go from here? “Denver! Denver! Denver!”

The other place she wanted everyone to go from here was her Web site. On the night of her alleged concession, and surrendering in this long and vicious battle, she did the same thing as she did every other night when she wanted her supporters to check their pockets for disposable Lincolns, she urged everyone to head to www.hillaryclinton.com.

That thought didn’t come in more of a scathing package than Tanya Acker on Dan Abrams’ post-election coverage on MSNBC “I came here tonight thinking ‘Hillary wants to be Vice President,’ and as soon as I heard her speech I thought, ‘Hillary wants to be President.’”

That was one story that the campaign didn’t disavow. As the delegates came over to Obama one by one, it was conspicuous–in a way that the abdominable cramps and intestinal rumbling are conspicuous after a suspect piece of pork–that she retracted the concession story at the same time she was declaring herself available for the Vice Presidency.

I wasn’t averse to the idea of her as Vice President–she would have the heft of 18 million voters behind her and she could help in some states where Obama’s tastes and mannerisms are a little too refined for those who come home each day with some of their work on them–but she’s turned this into a Mexican standoff at best, and a hostage situation at worst. Obama looks weak if he gives it to her now; she has 18 million voters who can knock him around and take his lunch money if he doesn’t.

In any case, more on this Wednesday. The general election has begun–and we’ve still got three candidates.