Terry McAuliffe is saying that tonight, when Obama attains the delegates he needs to win the Democratic nomination, Hillary Clinton will likely "congratulate him and call him the nominee." My guess is that she'll announce something along the lines of, "I'm suspending major campaign activities, but I will continue traveling the country to talk about the issues that animate my supporters and me: universal health care, good jobs," and so on and so forth. She will avoid saying the words, "concede," "drop out," "exit," "halt," or anything similar.
In other words, Clinton will make sure that she keeps everything in place in order to jump right back in should Obama be felled by a major controversy. That seems to be, in part, what the Clinton camp is waiting for now. The appearance of them expecting and hoping for such an event is both divisive to the Democratic Party and distracting from the goal of defeating John McCain. Sad.
--Dana Goldstein
