Hillary Takes Hostages! Film at 11!

More than a couple bloggers/soap-boxers/analysts have used the metaphor of "Scorched Earth" to describe Hillary's strategy in Ohio and Texas - her campaign was aware that the numbers didn't add up to a possible nomination, so from the outside it seemed like she was doing everything she could to destroy Obama even if it destroyed the party. Ultimately, I find this an ineffective metaphor - Hillary is not stupid, and the idea that people have been floating that she's destroying Obama and giving McCain an easier shot at the presidency so she can rally and come back in 2012 is beyond ludicrous. If anyone in the campaign was thinking that, I wouldn't be surprised if it's the same person who e-mailed that stupid photo of Obama in Somali garb to Matt Drudge.

More after the jump...

Her victory, and what the next few weeks are looking like, have given rise, at least in my mind, to a better metaphor: Hillary as hostage taker.

It's not a nice thing to think about. The math has not changed, essentially - the net delegates won was very small, and Clinton would have to present near impossible numbers, something in the 70's, in all the remaining races to catch up. Obama is actually in a much better position than that because he has this mystery fundraising number to disclose and some time out in the open without a race for the next couple weeks, which is traditionally when he does better. This, however, is small potatoes, because one major thing has changed in the race (and it's not momentum).

Hillary Clinton has proven that she can wound Barack Obama.

I know. It didn't seem possible. He seemed to be playing a different kind of politics. He seemed to be a master at inoculating himself against a host of different attacks and making her seem exactly like every negative stereotype much of America imagines her to be. Yet now she has proved she can hurt him, and she has demonstrated she will continue to hurt him as long as she has to and as harshly as she has to. She's like the hostage taker, and she's taken Obama hostage, the gun to his head, presenting an ultimatum to get what she wants.

And who is the ultimatum to? The Democratic Party (she took them hostage, too). She knows that the only way she wins the nomination is if it is essentially given to her in an extrademocratic way by the superdelegates. They see the race going towards Obama. With this result, and her vow to "fight on", Hillary is saying that if this goes where the math says, I'll take him out. You've just seen I can do it. And then what will you have for the general? If you don't want that to happen, you step in and you put a stop to this silliness. You fuel a jet, put it on the runway, and send it all the way to Denver, or else.

There should be no confetti right now, for anyone. Not Obama, because he's lost a lot of his control over the race and what happens here on out (oh, he could keep winning - it probably won't matter). Not the superdelegates, or the party, because they're on the cusp of losing this race that should have been an easy win when they essentially make the choice for the electorate. Not Clinton certainly - she shouldn't be happy about doing this, regardless of how poisonous she believes an Obama nomination would be in the general. This is the worst possible position the Democratic party has been in since the beginning of this race.

I think we need a negotiator.

(This post previously appeared on TPM's Reader Blog.)