Was she given too much credit...

...when everyone thought she would make a graceful exit and put the good of her party (and if you share the Democratic point of view, her country) before ego?

Despite the fact that there's no conceivable way she can get a majority of delegates, Clinton could take it to convention.

Rachel Maddow thinks so:

After the primary calendar has ended, Clinton's campaign can only justify or explain her staying in the race if she makes the case that the Democratic Party still has not chosen a nominee conclusively. Clinton needs an argument that the game should go into extra innings. Overtime. Bonus round. Detention. Whatever. Clinton has now found that argument -- she says she will not stop campaigning until the issue of the Florida and Michigan delegates is settled to her satisfaction.

The Florida/Michigan issue get settled, of course, by the Democrats' Rules and Bylaws Committee... unless of course that committee's decision gets appealed to the Credentials Committee... unless of course that decision, too, gets appealed... to the floor of the convention.

Clinton continues to insist that Michigan (where she was practically unopposed on the ballot) and Florida be included in the delegate count, despite the fact that she agreed to the rules that docked the two states' delegates for moving their primaries.

Her campaign plans to flood the meeting where the matter will be settled:

Busloads of Hillary Clinton supporters will swarm a meeting next week at a D.C. Marriott, where Democratic Party elders hope to forge a compromise over Florida and Michigan's now-voided convention delegates.

And a Clinton supporter has filed suit over Florida:

Three prominent Broward County Democrats filed a federal lawsuit Thursday morning against the Democratic National Committee, seeking to force the committee to seat Florida's delegates at the upcoming presidential nomination convention.

Interesting that she keeps using the false analogy of Florida in 2000 to justify this strategy, as the Clintons were pretty much silent on the recount at the time.

They did, after all, have better things to do then ... like pardoning Mark Rich.

Unless the superdelegates move soon and ratify the pledged vote totals, we're possibly looking at 3 more months of this...and probably President-elect McCain in the fall.

Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., speaks during a campaign rally at Maysville High School in Maysville, Ky. Monday, May 19, 2008. (AP Photo/David Kohl)