Shapiro's piece is good and on the mark; Hillary's persistence, and her most persistent supporters--like Pa. Governor Rendell, are locked in a math even more fuzzy than that of George W. Bush in 2000. Not to put too fine a pointon things, Clinton basically wants the 1992 electoral map to determine the nomination, because it hasn't changed much for Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and the few other states she has won in fair contests--sorry, Florida and Michigan, you ae not included.

When the campaign thawed out Bill and sent him to South Carolina to shake up the black vote, and then on to Ohio and Texas to plead Hillary's "It's her turn, it's my legacy, and baby don't you want us back" message along with a peculiar version of gender victimology at least some of us found hypocritical from President Philanderer, the Clintons discovered just how much things had stayed the same for older, less educated, lower income white voters who feared change more than even George W. Bush. Just promise them the impossibility of low taxes, good jobs, social secuity, and unoiversal health with no detail and tell folks that Hill and Bill will take care of everything. No worries, mate.

But these are real people, many of them lifelong democrats and there are enough of them to fill all the pews at the Church of Clinton. Bill is the Joel Osteen of politicians, preaching a gospel of Hillary wants you to get a better job and be rich and happy, well, just like him. And the Clintons, with promises to walk on water--how else can you describe them if Bill Richardson is Judas- have created a real problem for Obama and his politics of hope. You can't disrespect what may be a third of the Democratic Party because they believe the finger wagging gospel of the Clintons. And sell elixir.

Evangelical patter aside, it's genuinely hard for Obama to zero in on Hillary Clinton's noteworthy departures from the truth in recent weeks and call her what she really is--a political has been who actually never was. There is no signature piece of legislation Hillary can call her own: she failed miserably in 1993 on health reform, and has no major legislation to her credit as U.S. Senator. Which is why she had to try to run on Bill's coat tails and the relative economic prosperity of the mid 1990s. But Obama can't say this about Hillary without attacking the long time supporters of his own party, and opening himself up to charges of gender bias.

Fortunately for Obama, Hillary chose to run as incumbent for the nomination, and convinced herself that she didn't need to do much to win the nomination because Bill had called in all his 1990s markers and had nailed down the party machine and the big ticket donors. Nothing shows the antiquarian nature of the Clinton campaign more than the utter failure to anticipate the internet fundraising of Obama, and then to be unable to respond to his success. How sad that things came to the point where her financial backers tried to blackmail the entire Democratic party.

And now we're in the middle of rewriting each and every rule of the DNC so that Clinton can win. Is she losing the pledged delegate race? No matter; the superdelegates can overturn the votes of 50 states, D.C., and U.S. territories. If she comes in second in pledged delegates, popular vote, and total states won, no worry. Superdelegates should look to the electoral college votes in the states she won, and assume against all evidence that Obama would not win California and New York handily against McCain. Again, this is politics old school; Have A Havana with Hillary in the Back Room should be her convention pledge.

Enter Geraldine Ferraro and her claim that Obama is the token black guy like she was the token white gal in 1984. In truth, if Hillary had any other surname except Clinton, the party leadership would have dragged her off center stage by the ear weeks ago. Instead, the media polishes up the Clinton armor, and waits for the black magic of the Clinton machine to cast a fatal spell on Obama's candidacy.

It may yet happen, if enough Democratic voters are willing to walk back in time to days that cannot return. Or if Obama really does self destruct. But it won't happen because the Clintons understand 2008, or the generation of voters that grew up while they were in the freezer. Even though it's spring, all I can think in Brrr!