Officially, when the polls close tonight in Montana and South Dakota around 10:00 PM eastern time, the Democratic race for the nomination will be over. In truth, it ended weeks ago when it became clear that Hillary Clinton could never overtake Barack Obama in either pledged delegates or Superdelegates and claim the nomination for herself.
In light of that, Marc Ambinder has a probable end game for the Clinton campaign and some speculation about the future:
Over the weekend, Sen. Hillary Clinton has told friends that she will NOT drop out today. Again, these conversations occurred over the weekend.
These friends expect that she will take a few days to think about her next move. They say she does not feel rushed and does not want to feel pressured. It is quite possible that Clinton makes a vice presidential overture in the speech; as in, she'll express a willingness to serve her party in any capacity deemed necessary to to unite the party. The Obama world seems still very cool to this idea.
In general, her speech tomorrow night will be a celebration of Hillary Clinton's campaign and her 17 million supporters. It will also be a summary of key points for undecided superdelegates.
Sens. Tom Harkin and Ken Salazar are trying to get the undeclared Senate superdelegates to endorse in one fell swoop; several dozen House members are planning to endorse Obama by Wednesday. Obama aides believe that they will have more than 2118 public pledges from pledged and automatic delegates by Wednesday morning.
It is expected that Obama's speech tonight will mirror Clinton's in that he will look back on the completed campaign. But there will be one major difference; Obama will pivot and go after John McCain.
One way or another - probably as a result of Obama gong over the magic number of 2118 - Hillary Clinton's campaign will, for all intents and purposes, be over. She may not concede the race. But it is almost a certainty she will suspend her campaign to see what happens between now and the convention in late August.
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