The Note: Lonely Hearts

June 2, 2008 -- Is it still possible to be in it to win it when all is lost? Will she jump before she's pushed?

In a week to be marked with a final set of poll-watching and a possibly not-final set of death-watching, five lessons coming off of a wild weekend on the trail:

1. There is fight yet in Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (and another one of those landslide/meaningless victories makes for one last case to the superdelegates -- though some signs, at least, point to the exit).

2. Clinton may wind up being the last person standing in an empty arena, unless she won't be (and she knows it doesn't necessarily take surrender for the match to be deemed over).

3. Sen. Barack Obama knows how to learn lessons (but sometimes needs extensions on his tests -- and it's easier to quit a church than to erase clips from YouTube).

4. There's a new magic number (for now) for the Democratic nomination -- 2,118 -- and a new magic number for Camp Clinton -- 17 million. (But the Clintons aren't the only Democrats who know how to count.)

5. Sen. Clinton drags more than just the baggage of trailing in the delegate count (superdelegates have long memories -- and most want long futures).

The upshot out of the weekend's wild developments: Obama, D-Ill., drew closer to clinching the nomination, while Clinton, D-N.Y., grew lonelier in her determination to fight on.

Obama will only get closer after the final voting takes place Tuesday -- and we're nearing the end, whether Clinton wants to admit it or not (and that questions has multiple -- and conflicting -- answers as of Monday morning).

"What he needs is 30 or fewer superdelegates. The only mystery at this point is, when is he going to get them?" ABC's George Stephanopoulos reported on "Good Morning America" Monday.

He said the lines of communication are open between the campaigns, and predicted a "very gracious" concession speech after Obama reaches 2,118 -- possibly Wednesday. "We're in the endgame right now," Stephanopoulos said.

With Obama set to declare victory this week, Clinton's campaign is set to make a final argument to the superdelegates -- yet she's hinting she may continue even if Obama appears to clinch the nomination.

Said Clinton, to the traveling press: "One thing about superdelegates is that they can change their minds." (Funny -- they have been, just not in her direction; she held a 212-138 edge on the morning of Feb. 6, and he leads 331.5-284.5 as of Monday morning, per ABC's count.)

In an interview with The Washington Post's Anne Kornblut, "Clinton stressed that she will press forward through the final contests of the primary season on Tuesday, brushed aside the idea that she was searching for an exit strategy, and said she will continue to weigh both her immediate- and longer-term options in the race."

Clinton tells The New York Times' Adam Nagourney: "In recent primary history, we have never nominated someone who has not won the popular vote." x

And this, to make things really interesting -- asked whether she would accept 2,118 as the true magic number: "That's a question we're going to be considering," Clinton told reporters Sunday.

Her direct message to superdelegates, in her victory speech in Puerto Rico: "In the final assessment, I ask you to consider these questions: Which candidate best represents the will of people who voted in this history election? Which candidate is best able to lead us to victory in November? And which candidate is best able to lead our nation as our president in the face of unprecedented challenges at home and abroad?" Clinton said, per ABC's Eloise Harper.

But the supers still aren't budging, and some of Clinton's strongest supporters see the writing that's taken months to etch itself onto the walls.

"It does appear to be pretty clear that Senator Obama is going to be the nominee," former governor Tom Vilsack, D-Iowa, a national co-chairman of Clinton's campaign, tells the AP's Beth Fouhy. "After Tuesday's contests, she needs to acknowledge that he's going to be the nominee and quickly get behind him."

"There's nobody taking Hillary's side but Hillary people," former DNC chairman (and Clinton supporter) Don Fowler tells The New York Times. As for the prospect of keeping the delegate fight alive through the summer: "Unless something happens that I don't expect to happen in the next, say, by the end of June, my answer to that is not only no but, hell no."

Added Gov. Ed Rendell, D-Pa., another strong Clinton ally: "We are willing to go on, and we understand the inevitability of this, but we are filled with disappointment and amazement: Why haven't these results caused the superdelegates to come around?"

Interpret as you will: "Members of Hillary Clinton's advance staff received calls and emails this evening from headquarters summoning them to New York City Tuesday night, and telling them their roles on the campaign are ending," Politico's Amie Parnes reports. "The advance staffers -- most of them now in Puerto Rico, South Dakota, and Montana -- are being given the options of going to New York for a final day Tuesday, or going home, the aides said. The move is a sign that the campaign is beginning to shed -- at least -- some of its staff."

A chance to reflect: "Hillary Rodham Clinton is headed to Chappaqua late tonight for a somber and potentially momentous homecoming," Newsday's Glenn Thrush reports."Clinton will huddle with advisers and husband Bill Clinton at her mansion tomorrow, according to people familiar with her plans. She will monitor results from the final 2008 primaries in South Dakota and Montana and decide whether, how and when she will end her campaign as Barack Obama nears the nomination threshold."

If the party (including many Clinton supporters) accepts 2,118 as the new number, how will Clinton be able to go on? The voices from inside her own camp are "pointing the way to a peaceful end for the tumultuous presidential primary campaign," per Peter Wallstein of the Los Angeles Times. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla.: "It would be most beneficial if we resolved this nomination sooner rather than later."

Donna Brazile, on ABC's "This Week," gave the whole exercise regarding uncommitted superdelegates about 72 hours to resolve itself: "The battle's over," she said. "We know the victor."

(And this doesn't even include House Majority Whip James Clyburn -- set to endorse you-know-who on Tuesday -- or House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. How much patience do they have left?)

Do we know that the Clintons are watching the same race? "Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and her supporters are talking as if the Democratic nomination is within reach, claiming a popular vote victory with the last metric that possibly favors her," Christina Bellantoni writes in the Washington Times.

Saturday's DNC Rules & Bylaws Committee compromise could speak to more than its members realized: Democratic Party insiders resolved a stand-off to detriment of (and over the loud objections of) the one-time powerbrokers. (It may not be the last time they'll be called into such services.)

The revolution, it turned out, was televised -- on C-SPAN. Obama controls the levers of power in the party now, not the Clintons -- and that's the sentiment that at this moment remains exceedingly likely to seal the nomination for him, not her.

Yet this all makes for a messing closing sequence for a party that needs unity. "Clinton supporters were heartbroken, enraged, dispirited -- and angry," ABC's Jake Tapper writes from inside the DNC meeting. And Harold Ickes delivered the words that will haunt the party for at least a few days, if not a few months: "Mrs. Clinton has instructed me to reserve her right to take this to the Credentials Committee."

"The chaos and vitriol seemed to confirm Democrats' fears that they might blow an election that should otherwise be an easy victory for them," Dana Milbank writes in The Washington Post, under the headline, "Democrats Come Together to Tear Their Party in Half."