Chuck Todd, et. al.: Hillary may have overplayed her hand

From First Read:

From Chuck Todd, Mark Murray, and Domenico Montanaro
*** Did Hillary stay in too long? Given the thud with which Clinton's RFK flub was received, it's starting to become clear that perhaps she erred in deciding to stay in the race this long. Imagine had she suspended her campaign and still won primaries. Wouldn't that have put her in an even stronger position than now? Obama hasn't run a campaign against her for the last few weeks and, in turn, it's helped Clinton prop up her personal standing. But wouldn't she be winning over the support of some in ObamaNation if she were sort of returning the favor by getting out and suspending the campaign? And that's the rub: At some point for her political future, she has to win back the support of Obama's supporters. And they don't seem to be very forgiving of her right now. The Clinton campaign may believe these folks are being irrational, but it's the state of play right now. It's interesting -- Clinton partisans are mad at a lot of folks, but Obama isn't at the top of the list. For Obama partisans, Clinton (or the Clintons) is at the top of their anger list. As for Clinton, she really hasn't given a good reason for staying in (versus suspending her candidacy while keeping her delegates) for any set of voters other than those folks in Michigan and Florida or for the folks in Puerto Rico. If she were in suspension mode, she could be focusing on legacy restoration. Instead, everything she says is viewed through the prism of angling for a longshot 1% chance at the nomination. Whatever the outcome at this point, Clinton's folks may wish they had suspended their candidacy a few weeks ago. In this case, short-term gain could end up being long-term political pain.

I was thinking about this earlier this morning. It's almost as if the Clintons feel that they have nothing to lose, so they're going for broke. But do they have nothing to lose? Can't Hillary run again in four years if Obama loses in the fall? Hell, can't Hillary run again in 8 years if Obama wins (she'll only be 68, which still makes her viable)? Does Hillary have any aspirations to be Senate Majority leader? Does Bill care about his legacy? Does Hillary care about hers? Does either one of them care about the family name they've now muddied for their daughter (Bill has hinted that he'd like Chelsea to go into politics)? I'm not saying that I care about any of this - let them destroy their name - but they do care about it. Or did. And probably will again.