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...but when Walter Shapiro says it's over, and he's talking about Hillary Clinton, then it really is over.
I agree with Libertyson that we all should continue to respect the cunning and determination of Ms. Clinton and her track record of incredible gambits for pulling herself out of the icy waters. She will likely continue til the last cow is in the barn, the door is closed and the barn set afire.
It is not a pretty thing to watch, but it is, at this point, more inevitable than a Clinton nomination was just four months ago. All raving lunatics arguing against the obvious duly noted, there is no probable way this can end with Clinton as the nominee. I only hope -- quite sincerely -- that she can find a way to allow herself some dignified exit plan. The timing will be up to her, and I'm not certain Shapiro's notion of throwing in the towel after a win in West Virginia would be so much dignified as a slap in the face of her supporters, her foot soldiers who have gone there and endured tremendous hardship on her behalf. That's if she actually wins there. West Virginia is poorly understood by people living in about 42 of the contiguous states anyway, and absolutely anything could happen there tomorrow.
Still, there needs to be some sort of entourage dispatched now to help her figure out how to extricate herself before she winds up in a position where history may make the first female candidate's heroic run look something less than heroic. I don't want to see that, I'm sure she doesn't (if she's even considered the possibility) and it's for damn sure her opponents won't want to wind up with that for their legacy. They deserve better. The Clinton family deserves better. But the person who can prevent it is the candidate herself, and I'm no longer sure she can see through the mist of self-absorption anymore, if she ever could.
For the sake of a relatively happy ending to all this, I hope Ms. Clinton can at least be persuaded to do this in a way that will allow her a place of honor and respect in history's view, rather than Glen Close's character in "Fatal Attraction." She's starting to look like a rabbit boiler right about now.
