Rules are rules (unless they are not)

Let me see if I've got this straight:

- All the major candidates running for the Democratic contest agree to the rules that Michigan and Florida will not be counted.

- One of the major candidates - after a disorganized campaign blew its built-in advantage of name recognition and a huge lead in the polls - decided that the voters (and, though not said out loud, the delegates) must be counted in those two states.

- Supporters of that major candidate cry foul when the DNC Rules Committee awards half delegates in the disputed states (as opposed to zero, which would have been the case).
According to the Clinton math, Hillary is leading in the popular vote, if you include the disputed states. She's also leading the delegate count in states that begin with letters in the second half of the alphabet and have even numbers of vowels, not to mention her overwhelming lead in the "important" states. If you're keeping track, the important states are those won by Hillary.

It's 3 a.m. The phone rings in the White House. Who's going to answer it? Hillary - because the only time Obama is going to let her within granade-throwing distance of the Oval Office is when he's not in there.

Hillary's not upset that Obama came in and "stole" the nomination. The Illinois senator likely swiped the big prize: The presidency. In her mind, the weak GOP choice - McCain - is very beatable, and an Obama win means she's out of the running for the presidency until 2016.

All of this is moot if Hillary takes her ball and goes home, sabotages the election for Obama, and re-emerges as the person to beat in 2012. Stranger things have happened...