I find it laughable that so many here are upset that Clinton didn't concede last night. Your political naivety and lack of historical perspective is astonishing. Though perhaps I'm being a bit harsh since for many this is the first or one of a few presidential primaries you've ever pay attention to. Not that most of you have paid much attention. But I guess I shouldn't expect much intellectual rigor or study since I haven't really studied past primaries all that much either. I have the advantage of having lived through 10 presidential primaries so I can just remember.

I never expected Hillary to concede last night. I can't think of any hard fought primary where the losing candidate rolled over and supplicated themselves before the winning candidate. With this being the closest primary in my lifetime I knew there would be some negotiations before Hillary got on board.

I remember the negotiations between Mondale and Hart after the primaries were over. Hart also was threatening to take the fight to the convention floor. There were disagreements about the primary rules and superdelegates. Before Hart was willing to suspend his campaign and support the nominee he had certain issues he wanted addressed.

Hart wanted reforms in the campaign rules that hurt his candidacy. He called them pro democracy reforms and maybe they were. But they were also the rules that stymied his candidacy that year.  He wanted changes in the number of supers and changes in the caucus rules. There was extensive behind the scenes negotiations and when an agreement was reached there was a meeting between the two candidates with a public announcement afterwards. Even then Hart did not end his candidacy, he simply suspended it and agreed to not bring any fights to the convention floor.

The 84 primary was much less close then this one yet still  Hart had earned enough political clout to bring up issues, make demands and expect discussion  with some acceptable compromise to be reached before he gave his support.

This primary has been the closest one in my life time. Hillary has earned considerable political capital from this fight and I fully expect her to spend it. I don't know what she'll ask for but what ever it is she will get most of it. There are likely behind the scenes negotiations going on at this very moment and quite possibly some party elder acting as mediator. A truly neutral party like Gore is the most likely mediator.

When some compromise is worked out there will be some public meeting between Obama and Hillary. There'll be smiles and hugs all around and all sorts of cliches about party unity and how lovin' and friendly they all are. The show must go on, you know.

For the few of you who aren't partisan hacks spinning superficial MSM talking points for your candidate I took a little time to find a link to a article written at the time to back up my memory of the situation.

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,950074,00.html?promoid=googlep