Declaring victory, acknowledging defeat

For reasons I've stated previously, I'm glad to hear this from Team Obama: "We’re definitely not going to declare victory [on May 20] ... We think it’s an important moment in the campaign ... [but] obviously we have to get to 2025."

Meanwhile, James Carville -- whom Becky and I will be seeing in person Thursday night, at the Knox County Truman Day Dinner (I got tickets through someone at work) -- says Obama will probably win:

Carville told about 500 people at Furman University that U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton should fight until the last dog dies.

“I still hear some dogs barking,” said Carville, the flamboyant Louisianan known as the left’s ragin’ Cajun. “I’m for Senator Clinton, but I think the great likelihood is that Obama will be the nominee.

“As soon as I determine when that is, I’ll send him a check.”

The New York Times Caucus Blog declares Carville "our fat lady" -- i.e., the official arbiter of when the race ends -- and says, "we’ll be keeping an eye on those Federal Election Commission filings to let you know when the general election has officially begun." Heh.

Comments

[dcl]

In other news, the story line that Obama losing in West Virginia means something we didn't already know has begun -- silly Wolf...

[Duck]

Hillary accepting defeat (I intentionally use "accept" rather than "admit" here as someone may admit defeat but refuse to accept it by continuing to fight) would be a truly remarkable and unanticipated thing. We shall see if it ever happens.

[Alasdair]

"We think it’s an important moment in the campaign ... [but] obviously we have to get to 2025" - is Obama's campaign worker referring to how many more years Obama willl have to campaign til he can have campaigned in his 57th State ?

I know that say that Hillary is tenacious, but campaigning for another 16+ years ? That does seem a tad excessive ...

Or was your candiudate, Senator Obama, referring to the well-known states of Heinz, Brendan ?