Dem Leadership Seeks to End Hillary's Campaign

This seems to be a desperate move by the Congressional leadership and will probably not sit well with Hillary Clinton supporters. Apparently, Speaker Pelosi, Majority Leader Reid and Party Chairman Dean have set a Friday deadline for all Superdelegates to make their choice on who they are backing for President:

The joint statement was obviously pre-planned and timed for issue shortly after Clinton refused to concede the presidential nomination's victory to Barack Obama, who's gained sufficient delegates to clinch the party's nomination.

Howard Dean, chairman of the Democratic National Committee, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin, chairman of the Democratic Governors Assn., issued the brief statement for unity just minutes ago:

"The voters have spoken," they said, adding later, "Democrats must now turn our full attention to the general election. To that end, we are urging all remaining uncommitted super delegates to make their decisions known by Friday of this week, so that our party can stand united."

The carefully-worded statement, which does not urge the superdelegates to go one way or the other, is a clear step to force an end to the effort by Clinton, who said Tuesday she would take a few days to consider her options and protect the voices of the nearly 18 million voters who cast ballots for her in recent months. Her hand is now being forced by the Friday deadline.

In effect, the party bigwigs have taken the onus off of Obama for trying to force Clinton to concede and placed it on themselves.

It still may not matter to Clinton. Her case is that Superdelegates - who are not bound to support any candidate until they cast their ballot at the convention - could yet find a reason to switch allegiances.

But that hope is fading very fast and it is unlikely now that even if some kind of bombshell were to strike Obama's campaign, many Supers would not automatically switch to Clinton. There very well might be a move to bring a third candidate into the mix - Al Gore has been mentioned continuously as such a candidate.

Hillary Clinton's campaign is over. Her only reason for staying in at this point is to gather leverage for whatever plans she may have for the future.