This is getting to a point of pure facetiousness--looks like she's just going to make it into double digits. Now she'll get the money she needs to keep this going. It's as if the election gods really are playing a joke on us. And so it continues to go on and on and on. It's a great win for the forces that seek to keep us stuck in the mud. It's as if we simply don't have the collective will to break free.
Listen, it all boils down to something very simple. It's in part about race, but more fundamentally half the electorate votes for the familiar and what seems safe and the other half votes for the future which for the first group is less comfortable because less sure. Pennsylvania has spoken about what it wants. It could have ended this drama by voting for Obama, but it chose to prolong the agony. So be it. The rest of us have to endure the consequences.
UPDATE 2: David Corn has it right:
During the Monica Lewinsky scandal--when many pundits and Clinton foes predicted Bill Clinton's demise--the Clintons learned a valuable lesson: sometimes you just have to put one foot in front of the other and keep moving ahead, paying no heed to those who say you have no choice but to quit. They had their party--most of it--behind them during those days. And now Hillary Clinton, with significant voter support, is plodding ahead, stuck with a strategy that at this point leaves her only the nuclear option of nullifying Obama's primary and caucus victories. But, she can reason, if I am not dead, then I'm still alive--and still have a chance. Politically speaking, she is somewhere between dead and alive. The undead? The next primaries may nudge her closer to one of those poles. And, once again, they may not be decisive. But as of now, amid the glow of her Pennsylvania victory, it's up to Hillary Clinton to decide at what point might rest the bitter end.
Can he superdelegates please put her out of her misery? It would have been easier if her win were only 5-8 points. Nevertheless.
But the superdelegates are afraid that though they shoot her, they cannot kill her, so why risk facing the wrath of the undead which will be wreaked on them who did not stand by her.
UPDATE 2: From Sullivan. It's all about brand loyalty:
This rings true to me:
Almost all working class folks have about the same knowledge of politics as you and I have about cars. Which is to say, on one level, quite a lot, but it's not what they devote their lives to understanding. So, as we do in the case of cars, they turn to other mechanisms, such as brand loyalty, to make their decisions.
What they know about Clinton is that she was a part of the Administration that spent eight years talking about issues that were important to them and presiding over an era of peace and prosperity. So what they are going on here is familiarity and positive experiences, the same thing that I do when I buy only Japanese cars. This is a perfectly reasonable way of going about doing things even if I might make a mistake and select a very high quality Japanese car (Hillary in this analogy) instead of a surprisingly better this year in spite of lack of experience American car (Obama). They are not are suckers who are fooled by Hillary's Crown Royal shot (perhaps if it had been JD) or whether Obama's "bitter" comment represents the totality of his views any more than I am a sucker who is fooled (or influenced at all) by television advertisements for cars.
I found out that a friend supported Clinton last night. I was stunned. I asked him why. He said he liked the 1990s, they were good times, he'd like them back. That was it. He had no real feelings about Obama, but he knew the Clinton name and associated it with good times. I pushed further. That was it. He's a man who isn't too interested in politics but knew enough to back the familiar. It may be that simple.
I think it is that simple. There are two corollaries: First, new loyalties can be formed. The Obama brand is one that I think will come to be accepted and valued. Second, Obama has this problem only in relation to Clinton. McCain may have been around for a long time, but he does not have the Clinton brand equity.