Despite canceling her morning round of post-primary big media appearances yesterday, Hillary Clinton was back on the stump in West Virginia by midday sounding not at all like a candidate who has dropping out on her mind. A few of her more quotable remarks:

  • “If we had the rules that the Republicans have, I’d already be the nominee.” (YouTube)
  • “I’m staying in this race until there’s a nominee.” (ABC)
  • “I have a much broader base to build a winning coalition on,” she said…. As evidence, Clinton cited an Associated Press article “that found how Sen. Obama’s support among working, hard-working Americans, white Americans, is weakening again, and how whites in both states who had not completed college were supporting me. There’s a pattern emerging here.” (USA Today)

Meanwhile, politicos continue to speculate about how Clinton might be shoved from the race absent a Bataan Death March all the way to Denver. The most interesting scenario is limned out by HuffPost political editor Tom Edsall, who writes (emphasis added):

“She has ruled it out, but a prompt withdrawal from the contest for the Democratic nomination offers Sen. Hillary Clinton the prospect of major rewards. One of the most inviting is the near certainty that the Obama campaign would agree to pay back the $11.4 million she has loaned her own bid, along with an estimated $10 million to $15 million in unpaid campaign expenses.”

In other words, Obama’s campaign (which is to say, Obama’s donors) would pay the Clintons what amounts to an $11 million signing bonus for coming aboard. It’s a customary fence-mending gesture in presidential races for the victor to help the vanquished settle their unpaid bills, but there is apparently no precedent for the deal contemplated here.

Josh Marshall of TPM thinks using Obama campaign funds to repay the Clintons’ loans to her campaign a reprehensible idea. You?