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.