From the Associated Press:

After a weekend of campaign adversity, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and her husband separately prodded Democratic Party leaders on Monday to look beyond mere delegate strength in picking a presidential nominee at this summer’s national convention.

“I don’t know that it will be an easy decision, but that’s what leaders sign up for,” said the former president, declaring that his wife’s ability to win a general election should be considered.

The former first lady, who trails rival Sen. Barack Obama in the delegate chase, concurred. “I think it’s a question about everything and I think people are going to have to take everything into account,” she told reporters.

Made in different settings, the remarks underscore the debate roiling the Democratic Party as the primary season nears an apparently inconclusive end – while Republicans have begun to close ranks around Sen. John McCain for the fall campaign.

This is all par for the course with the Clintons, but there is a nugget in here that is new (I think).

But former President Clinton went one step beyond that when he suggested his wife may wind up trailing among delegates picked by voters.

“If Senator Obama wins the popular vote, then the choice (at the convention) would be easier,” he said on ABC’s “Good Morning America.” “But if Hillary wins the popular vote but can’t quite catch up in the delegate vote, then you have to just ask yourself which is more important and who’s more likely to win in November.”

That looks to me like a concession on Bill Clinton’s part that his wife must win the popular vote to have a realistic chance at the convention. That should be enough to seal the deal right now because Clinton is currently behind in the popular vote by an estimated 813,474 votes, and she isn’t going to make up the difference. Just as an example, Clinton only picked up about 230,000 popular votes in Ohio, even though she won the state 55%-45%. With Obama heavily favored to win the contests in North Carolina, Oregon, Montana, and South Dakota, there is little likelihood that Clinton can make up a 800,000 popular vote deficit…unless his candidacy collapses.

Even with Clinton’s dubious win in Florida included, she still trails by over 500,000 votes. I won’t even bother to include the Michigan numbers because in any revote Obama will close his current 328,000 vote deficit down to near nothing, if not actually add to his lead.

The Clintons are clearly hoping for a miracle at this point and it’s getting more than tiresome watching the Establishment indulge their destructive magical thinking. I think Kos nailed it when he wrote:

Meanwhile, Clinton and her shrinking band of paranoid holdouts wail and scream about all those evil people who have “turned” on Clinton and are no longer “honest power brokers” or “respectable voices” or whatnot, wearing blinders to reality, talking about silly little “strikes” when in reality, Clinton is planning a far more drastic, destructive and dehabilitating civil war.

People like me have two choices — look the other way while Clinton attempts to ignite her civil war, or fight back now, before we cross that dangerous line. Honestly, it wasn’t a difficult choice. And it’s clear, looking at where the super delegates, most bloggers, and people like Olbermann are lining up, that the mainstream of the progressive movement is making the same choice.

And the more super delegates see what is happening, and what Clinton has in store, the more imperative it is that they line up behind Obama and put an end to it before it’s too late.

Other than the use of ‘dehabilitating’ as a word, I think Kos got this exactly right. Why are the superdelegates letting this charade go on?