Good questions from James Antle:

But why are so many conservatives interested in keeping Hillary in the race? . . . Are they just warming up for the general election where they'll be rallying the troops behind the somewhat less liberal candidate?

Who knows? I certainly don't consider it my job to "rally the troops" for the GOP. A job usually involves pay, and I get annoyed at soi-dissant conservatives who behave as if they were on the RNC payroll. Former vice-presidential chiefs of staff may benefit professionally from the willy-nilly conflation of "conservative" and "Republican," but so far no one in the Republican Party has offered me a dime, so I remain a loose cannon.

Not that this involves any lofty principle on my part. A thoroughgoing capitalist -- as I once boasted, I write for money -- I'm perfectly willing to sell out and shut up. It's just that I haven't yet been able to make such a nuisance of myself as to merit any lucrative offers. A failure of marketing, perhaps.

She bitterly clings to her "Say Anything" campaign:

Also, here's a video clip of Hillary in Shepherdstown, W Va.

While Barack Obama is all but assured the Democratic nomination at this point, he's still widely expected to get trounced in West Virginia. The state is too small to change the race, but what is worth noting is the lack of a bandwagon effect for Obama in these primaries. Typically, when a candidate is seen as the likely nominee, undecided voters hop onboard to rally around him. But we haven't seen much of that with Obama. By mid-February, we pretty much knew he was going to be the nominee and yet he lost Ohio, Texas, Pennsylvania, and Indiana since then, and will likely get blown out in West Virginia. It may just be a function of Clinton's strength in a number of key states, but perhaps this is an indication that the resistence to Obama among working class voters is deeper. Obviously, we won't know the answer to this until the general election.

I agree with this author that an Obama-Webb ticket would make a great deal of sense: Jim Webb has a military background, possesses strong foreign-policy and national-security credentials without having supported the war, and could potentially help Obama with white working-class voters and ex-Republicans. Webb is also a bit of a loose cannon. A more cautious candidate would probably prefer Ed Rendell or Ted Strickland, Clinton-endorsing Democratic governors of states Obama desperately needs to carry. But a cautious politician wouldn't have run for president three years out of the Illinois state legislature.

The political press corps is now clamoring loudly for Hillary Clinton to quit the race, as witness Wednesday's question from a network reporter at her press conference in Shepherdstown, W.Va. :

"But what do you say to those Democrats who fear that you're putting the Democratic Party's chances at risk by...continuing to stay in?"

"All of these media types are demanding that Hillary drop out of the race now . . . and the Drive-Bys are saying, 'Get out of the race to save the party.' Now, what's the party got to do with the media? I ask rhetorically, of course," [Rush] Limbaugh told his listeners after watching TV coverage of the Shepherdstown press conference.

Pundits pronounced Hillary's doom yesterday -- "The Democratic primary is over," John B. Judis of the New Republic stated flatly -- yet she keeps campaigning. She's scheduled for an event this morning in Charleston, W.Va., then off to Oregon for more events before flying to Kentucky for a Friday night event in Louisville.

Why is it so hard for her to call it quits? No Clinton has lost an election since 1980, when Bill got beat in his first bid for re-election as governor of Arkansas. Unless Hillary can come up with a miracle, she'll be blamed for having broken the Democratic duo's 28-year-year undefeated streak.

Can a miracle happen? John Tabin's done the math, and figures it's still too early for Hillary to stop thinkin' about tomorrow.

The Constitution Party may not want Alan Keyes but some people do. Keyes scored his best Republican primary performance of the campaign last night, winning 3 percent of the vote in North Carolina (although he still trailed John McCain, Mike Huckabee, Ron Paul, and "no preference"). Keyes continues to run as an independent. And the state party chairman of the American Independent Party, Keyes's largest bloc of support at the CP national convention, told Ballot Access News that he would still like to nominate Keyes for president. This would pose an interesting dilemma for the Constitution Party: Theoretically, the AIP has agreed to abide by the will of the national party's convention. But if it doesn't do so and instead gives its California ballot line to Keyes, then what? If you disaffiliate the AIP, the Constitution Party loses its claim to be America's third largest political party.

"If I Were a Superdelegate" sounds like a great reality-show concept, doesn't it, Tabin?

Heck, if I were an uncommitted superdelegate at this point, I wouldn't commit to either candidate in exchange for anything less than a promised appointment as Ambassador to the Court of St. James's. 

The true believers among superdelegates committed long ago; now it's a patronage auction for the crafty wheeler-dealers.

CONGRESSIONAL SOURCE: Hillary having trouble finding superdelegates who will meet with her... 'No one wants to see her today'... Developing...

SHEPHERDSTOWN, W.Va. -- West Virginia is "a new day, a new state, a new election," Hillary Clinton told her audience here in front of Shepherd University's McMurran Hall. For the political press, however, the story remained the same: How long can she go on?

"I'm staying in this race until there's a nominee," she said in response to a question at a press conference after her "Solutions for America" rally here, vowing to "work as hard as I can to become that nominee."

During her speech, Clinton's voice sounded tired as she repeated the promises of what Philip Klein has dubbed her "Say Anything" campaign. At one point, she seemed to slip from her accustomed stance of certainty, telling the crowd what would happen "if I become president" instead of her habitual "when I become president."

While she campaigned in West Virginia's Eastern Panhandle-- and patiently endured a barrage of "when-will-it-end" questions from reporters -- the word from Barack Obama's headquarters was that the front-runner would begin focusing on the general election. Obama himself was reported to be resting in Chicago.

"I hope to live long enough to see a black president in the White House," McGovern said. "But we have an old rule and courtesy in the United States: 'ladies first.'"

First abandoned, it sounds more like.

Posted By: Wlady

Paul, I agree. I don't see much in Newt's grab bag of pandering proposals that will help much. But I think Tom Cole's concerns are more significant. Even if you don't think the special election losses mean much -- and I do think that even they demonstrate superior Democratic candidate recruitment, if not a need to play defense in formerly safe districts -- congressional Republicans are not well positioned going into the fall.

UPDATE: This kind of nonsense doesn't help.

Now that it looks like "Operation Chaos" won't be enough to save Hillary, perhaps Republicans should focus on congressional races where the picture is rather dismal.

Is this just cold-eyed realism for the Maverick?

John McCain, the caped crusader of reform for more than a decade, has taken to bending rules so he can remain competitive: His campaign pledged his eligibility for federal matching funds as collateral for a bank loan, then declined public funding and its spending limits for the primary season.

Last night's Obama victories -- and, let's face it, keeping the margin to 2% in Indiana was in its own way a victory as big as his North Carolina blowout -- have probably cinched the Democratic nomination, as Philip Klein reported from Raleigh in the wee hours. Michael Crowley of The New Republic and Ben Smith of the Politico both thought Hillary's speech last night showed signals of a weary acceptance of her doom.

Despite Team Clinton's increasingly