Is the race finished?

Well, contrary to what you might have heard last night, the race isn't over. But it may be getting REALLY close. The main reason was revealed in Hillary's speech last night, which she concluded by begging for people to go to her website and give money. Then there are rumors this morning that she has loaned MORE money to the campaign. In this race, you run out of money and you're done. Of course Hillary can give as much of her own money to the campaign as she wants, but how much is she really willing to part with.

Look for a couple of things to happen in the near future.

#! Howard Dean and the other leaders in the DNC are going to push and push HARD on the superdelegates to declare their allegiance. Possibly even calling a meeting of the undeclared supers. Once they get enough supers to hand it to Obama, it's done.

#2 Hillary may keep her campaign going, even by lending more money to it. Don't' worry about her though. Despite her stump speeches, she isn't hurting AND this can actually be used in her favor when it comes to a "buy out". Which means at some point she could go to Obama and the DNC and say, hey I'll drop out if you pay off my campaign debt. Of course that probably won't be the only thing that she negotiates for...

So why would Hillary even stay in this?

#1 Hoping for Obama to have a Spitzer moment or a lightning strike... you get the idea.

#2 It hurts Obama. That's right if she doesn't get the nod you are not going to see Hillary out there campaigning like a mad woman for Obama (unless of course she is the VP, but I think that is a LONG shot to say the least). Quite frankly, if she doesn't get the nod, then she'll want Obama to lose. That gives her a shot at 2012 and considering this has been her life long goal, she'll be hoping for McCain to eek out a win in November. That would give her a lot of ammo to be the nominee in 2012, which will be her last shot.