"They Would Do Anything to Win"

David Axlerod of the Obama campaign does not hide his feelings when talking about the Clintons:

Is it possible to win the Democratic nomination in such a way as to make winning not worth it?

The Barack Obama campaign thinks so. It thinks Hillary Clinton’s campaign is willing to take any road to the White House, including the low road.

“They would do anything to win, and that means anything,” David Axelrod, Obama’s chief strategist, told me Monday. “There is a frenetic energy around them to commandeer this election in any way they can.”

Axelrod went on: “She is the ultimate Washington inside player. She is always asking, ‘How do we wire the vote? How do we wire the system to get the results we want?’”

From his point of view, the Clinton campaign keeps trying to change the rules.

“When they started off, it was all about delegates,” Axelrod said. “Now that we have more delegates, it’s all about the popular vote. And if that does not work out, they will probably challenge us to a game of cribbage to choose the nominee.”

Another Obama senior aide told me he believed Clinton was willing to “destroy the party” just as long as she ends up with the nomination.

I asked Clinton Communications Director Howard Wolfson for a response.

“I think these apocalyptic quotes are unhelpful,” Wolfson said. “I don’t envision that either side would destroy the party. There is a democratic process here to play out. This process is not over. There are still 10 [contests] left to vote. What is the fear here? Let’s let democracy run its course.”

From the perspective of the Clinton campaign, it has little choice but to go all-out. As a top Clinton aide admitted to me: “Under our projections, if you sat both the Michigan and Florida delegations as they now exist and based on our projections for the remaining contests, Sen. Clinton would still trail narrowly on pledged delegates going into the convention.”

Which means that Clinton almost certainly cannot get to the Denver convention with a lead in pledged delegates won in primaries and caucuses. She also cannot win a majority of states, even if she wins every remaining contest.

It is still possible for her to pull ahead of Obama in the popular vote if she does very well in the remaining contests.

San Fran Nan tried to kabosh the idea that the popular vote has any meaning at all:

“It’s a delegate race,” Pelosi said. “The way the system works is that the delegates choose the nominee.”

The Obama campaign knows the Clinton campaign has no intention of accepting that.

I tend to agree with Axlerod that the Clintons do not care what the party looks like when they're done as long as they win the nomination. They probably figure that they will still have time to pull the party together in time for the win in November. I doubt it.

The divisions being created in the party right now are very deep and very bitter, and if Clinton is perceived as having "stolen" the election thanks to the superdelegates, some Democrats will never forgive that and will either stay home in November or turn out in strong numbers to vote against Hillary.

She's playing a dangerous game.