Hillary's Message to Supporters Keeps Glimmer Alive

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Hillary Clinton is an Ivy League lawyer surrounded by Ivy League lawyers. Anyone who saw her advisor Harold Ickes in action at the DNC Rules Committee over the weekend knows that these are folks who can and will parse every jot and tittle. When they write a mesage, particularly a very momentous one, it should be taken at anything but face value.

So when, as a loyal member of Hillary's email list, I received a message [full text here] from her this morning, I was eager to read between the lines. On the one hand, Clinton did say that at an event on Saturday she would "extend my congratulations to Senator Obama and my support for his candidacy."

She added: "I have said throughout the campaign that I would strongly support Senator Obama if he were the Democratic Party's nominee, and I intend to deliver on that promise."

We'll analyze those two lines, but let's begin by noting what Hillary did not say:

• I lost.
• I'm withdrawing from the race and asking my delegates to support Obama.
• He won.
• He IS the nominee [or even the presumptive nominee] of the Dem party.

Back to those two lines quoted above. Hillary will "extend her congratulations." But she doesn't say . . . for what. She pointedly does not say "for having won the nomination." Heck, I'm sure that after the Super Bowl, Giants coach Tom Coughlin congratulated losing Patriots coach Bill Belichick for something or other. Perhaps in her mind, Hillary will be congratulating Obama for finishing second to her in popular votes.

And yes, Hillary said she she would also extend her "support for his candidacy." But that doesn't necessarily mean that in her mind, he is the Dem nominee.

Then there's [emphasis added] "I have said throughout the campaign that I would strongly support Senator Obama if he were the Democratic Party's nominee, and I intend to deliver on that promise." But again, note that she doesn't say that he is the nominee. And "I intend to deliver" could be something to be done in the future. So this little nugget of obfuscation could be argued to mean: "yeah, I'll support him if and when he's nominated at the convention—but that hasn't happened yet."

Oh, to be sure, under all the circumstances Hillary has very little wiggle room. And this letter leaves Hillary with only the thinnest of reeds to argue that it's not over. But this is anything but a gracious concession letter congratulating Obama on having won, definitively withdrawing from the race, encouraging her delegates to support him and offering to immediately go to work on his campaign.

It is, rather, a missive from a woman inherently unwilling to go, who wants to make sure that should an opening arise, her words would not foreclose her from barging through it.

Note: I just picked my Ithaca Journal off the doormat. The banner headline: "Clinton to end run, keep options open." Given my mindset, I actually read the first phrase as meaning Clinton to pull an end run!