Endgame?

It does appear to me that the May 31 decision by the Rules and Bylaws Committee has pretty much ended this process, and it does no Democrat much good to continue rehashing the back-and-forth of whose metric sounds better, and that there's going to be something close to closure tomorrow night or by the end of the week. Some staffers are being laid off, the Tuesday night festivities will be in her home state of New York, and this is perhaps the most telling sign, from the Big Dog himself:

"I want to say that this may be the last day I'm ever involved in a campaign of this kind. I thought I was out of politics, till Hillary decided to run. But it has been one of the greatest honors of my life to go around and campaign for her for president."

There's the possibility, put forward by some, that Hillary will simply suspend her campaign, decline to endorse Sen. Obama, and leave the whole thing in limbo, waiting for a shoe to drop between now and the convention. I actually don't find that likely. By the standards of the Senate, Clinton is still fairly young, and she has the potential of a long career as a Democratic leader ahead of her should she choose that path. I know that she mentioned that superdelegates could change their minds but a two-month bullying campaign would basically end whatever strength she has within the party and would not be looked upon favorably by anyone. Politicians are programmed to strategize any opportunity to create an opening, but it doesn't necessary mean they'll use it. There's a cost-benefit analysis to all of this and Clinton is surely making that, and when that process concludes, I believe she will come to the decision of doing what's best for the country.

This doesn't mean that everything gets smoothed over and people make nice again. Far from it. When an election gets as personal and identity-based as this one has, I don't think there's anything measurable that either side can do to heal the rift outside of time, and there's not a lot of time left. And believe it or not, I agree with Taylor Marsh to an extent - the 69-59 Michigan split at the RBC meeting was unnecessary and only inflamed Clinton supporters. Now, I'm not certain what Obama had to do with that result - the entire Michigan delegation agreed on it, Clinton supporters included - but from a mathematical standpoint those numbers could have been 73-55 without a problem, and I can see how it would appear needlessly antagonistic.

"Healing" sounds nice but I challenge anyone to offer some concrete steps to get there that are more constructive than "shut up, your candidate lost."