That's a prediction. A prediction about which I feel certain. Will explain why below the break.
As soon as she walked to the podium in Puerto Rico yesterday, I could feel a shift. Something was different. Something difficult to describe. Perhaps it was that Hillary was more relaxed than I'd seen her in some time. Sort of the way Al Gore looked so much better, so much more relaxed, so much more presidential, when he conceded.
Then, at 1 minute, 55 seconds into the speech Hillary said:
I want to recognize Senator Obama and his supporters.
It was the first time I could recall her recognizing him (or us); a sharp departure.
When the crowd began jeering at the mention of Barack's name, she put up her hands to quiet them.
At two minutes and twelve seconds, she said:
We must elect a democratic president.
I saw that as a signal to her supporters, getting them ready for what's to come, getting them ready for what's going to be asked of them, letting them know that coming together as a party to win the general election is the highest priority.
Now Politico is reporting that Hillary is returning to New York on Tuesday and firing her advance staff.
As Lalo posted in a comment on The Field:
Clinton [is] spending election night in her home state, Obama spending election night at the site of the Republican National Convention. Obviously someone is busy running a campaign for the general election, and someone else isn’t.
That came in response to Giordano's prediction that we won. His prediction, which predates mine, reinforced what I'd felt earlier; my intuition when watching Hillary's speech. Rachel Maddow heard it differently, and suggested that Hillary was signaling an intent to keep running. I didn't see it that way. That's certainly not the way it resonated for me. But I was cautious, figuring it would be presumptuous to contradict someone as smart as Rachel.
But the revelation regarding advance staff cinches it. Quality advance staff is crucial to a campaign and extremely difficult to replace. If Hillary were planning to pivot into the general election, she would not let such important people -- many of whom will be hired by Obama -- go.
Doesn't take a genius to figure out that this thing is over. She may suspend. She may concede. But there's no way she's going to Denver as a candidate. Hillary is done squawking. She is an ex parrot.
So let's relax and enjoy the next few days and feel good about what we've accomplished before rolling up our sleeves to get to work registering new voters, making phone calls, talking about Obama to anyone who will listen, building party infrastructure and donating money. We've got a great candidate running in an excellent year. We're on track to win this thing, along with many down-ballot races -- if we keep working and don't let up.