See Hillary run

Sen. Clinton has announced that she's in the campaign until the convention. The question is, why?

Barring a cataclysm--Barack Obama run down by the press bus--she is going to be trailing the Illinois senator all the way to Denver. As more and more superdelegates endorse Obama--Sen. Bob Casey (D. PA) last week, Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D. MN) today--the tide swings more decisively toward him. Why, then, does Clinton stay in?

Clearly, there is no sufficient ideological difference between the campaigns to justify a contest.

Barring ego as a motivating force--surely no one in the Clinton camp would cite that as a reason to continue--the raison d'etre can only be Hillary's claim that she will make a better candidate against John McCain. To prove that, she should announce that she will campaign only against McCain, and instruct her staff and surrogates (and strongly appeal to her supporters) to stop criticizing Obama and concentrate on the Republican. And, of course, she should challenge Obama to do the same. Which he should. Then Democratic voters would have the chance to judge which candidate really can take on the Arizona Republican. (The Senator, not the newspaper.)