Hillary to Obama: Please don't embarrass me by winning

The long, long Democratic primary has come down to this sad, sorry state of affairs. The Clinton camp has sent out a stern warning to Obama that he better not acknowledge or celebrate any accomplishments, because it will embarrass Hillary, as reported in today's Washington Post.  So in Hillaryland, not only should Obama be chastised for defeating her, but he should be criticized for celebrating any hard-fought victories or milestones he has achieved.  This from a woman who ran around yesterday declaring victory in the popular vote total, even though it is a big fat lie.  Once again, Hillary tries to put constraints on the winning candidate beyond anything I've ever seen in a presidential primary.

As "tough" as Hillary claims to be, she certainly seems to have a thin skin these days.  Her staff is fuming because Obama plans to announce in Iowa tonight a notable milestone in his campaign: earning the majority of pledged delegates, meaning it will be impossible for Hillary to catch up to him in this all-important measure for winning the nomination.  

It is a critical milestone in no small part because many party leaders, including House leader Nancy Pelosi, have already declared that the Democratic presidential candidate who wins the most pledged delegates should win the party's nomination.  So it is clearly an accomplishment that any candidate has a justifiable right to celebrate -- but not in Hillaryland:

Obama and his advisers insist the event will stop short of a declaration that he has won the nomination. But it will be seen as another signal to superdelegates to climb aboard his bandwagon as quickly as possible.

The celebration, however, has rankled the Clinton campaign and the candidate herself. They see it as a highhanded effort to embarrass her and to generate renewed calls from others in the party for her to quit the race before anyone has achieved a genuine majority of pledged delegates and superdelegates.

We all know that if the roles were reversed and Hillary had achieved the majority of pledged delegates tonight, she'd be holding a whopper of a victory celebration unlike anything we've ever seen before.  But when Obama achieves the same milestone, he's expected to keep his head bowed reverentially and walk on eggshells, lest he hurt Hillary's feelings.  It's an appalling double-standard, and reflects the arrogant, monarchial tenor we've come to expect from the Hillary campaign.

The Post claims that there has been a "fragile" back-room understanding between the Obama and Clinton camps to let Hillary continue campaigning as long as she doesn't do anything to "damage Obama's prospects of winning in November."

Since (North Carolina and Indiana), Clinton has made significant adjustments in her campaign, all designed to signal to Obama that she recognizes the reality of where the Democratic race is heading.

She has stopped running negative ads and, on the stump, has dramatically reduced her criticism of Obama.

But the Post notes that Hillary keeps backing away from her promises to play nice.  For example, there was her infamous and outrageous statement the day after the North Carolina and Indiana primaries that Obama was having trouble winning the votes of "hardworking Americans, white Americans." And there was the nasty memo sent out by Harold Wolfson yesterday:

In a signal of how fragile the detente between the two sides is, the Clinton campaign sent out a tart memo yesterday under the name of communications director Howard Wolfson calling the Obama rally in Iowa "a slap in the face of millions of voters in the remaining primary states and to Senator Clinton's 17 million supporters." Then, in language tying the Obama campaign to the Bush White House, the memo continues: "Premature victory laps and false declarations of victory are unwarranted. Declaring mission accomplished does not make it so."

Bill Burton, an Obama spokesman, insisted that the Iowa rally would not be a declaration of mission accomplished. "Are we declaring that we've won the nomination? No." he said. But he called the expectation that Obama will secure a majority of the pledged delegates today "an important moment" that deserves a celebration.

Yes, it would definitely be an important moment to celebrate -- unless, of course, you're running against Hillary Clinton.  In Hillaryland, any effort by Obama to rightfully celebrate any type of victory is labeled as offensive or even sexist.

I also view Hillary's plan to campaign in Florida on Wednesday -- the same day that Obama is launching a three-day tour of Florida -- as another attempt for her to stick it to Obama.  Obama's tour of Florida is clearly aimed at the general election in November, and by almost any measure it will be a tough -- but doable -- state for Obama to win in the fall.  But despite Hillary's promise to do nothing to harm Obama's chances in November, she's going to Florida at the same time to clearly try to distract attention away from Obama's initial forays into the state for general election purposes.  So much for playing nice.

Frankly, I don't give a damn what Hillary Clinton says.  Tonight I am going to celebrate an important and hard-earned Obama victory and milestone: achieving the majority of the party's pledged delegates.  If that embarrasses Hillary, well then maybe she needs to get out of the race now.  It's only going to get more embarrassing for her from this point forward.