Below The Beltway

The political blogosphere is abuzz with reports that some are taking to indicate that Hillary Clinton might just call it quits after tomorrow’s primaries are over.

First, there was the report that the campaign is heading back to New York and that staff cuts are in the very near future:

Members of Hillary Clinton’s advance staff received calls and emails this evening from headquarters summoning them to New York City Tuesday night, and telling them their roles on the campaign are ending, two Clinton staffers tell my colleague Amie Parnes.

The advance staffers — most of them now in Puerto Rico, South Dakota, and Montana — are being given the options of going to New York for a final day Tuesday, or going home, the aides said. The move is a sign that the campaign is beginning to shed — at least — some of its staff. The advance staff is responsible for arranging the candidate’s events around the country.

Then, there’s the report that top campaign donors are also being summoned to New York for a Tuesday night speech:

Hillary Clinton has summoned top donors and backers to attend her New York speech tomorrow night in an unusual move that is being widely interpreted to mean she plans to suspend her campaign and endorse Barack Obama - if not that night, within a day or two.

(…)

“This has never happened before,” one donor said, referring to the personalized request by email to attend the event in New York Tuesday night.

Even one of Clinton’s highest-level advisers seems to be changing his tune:

In an afternoon conference call today with about two dozen top fundraisers, Clinton strategist Harold Ickes spoke in very conciliatory terms about Obama, in contrast to his tougher rhetoric in public and on television, according to sources. He told the participants that Clinton wants to “significantly” help Obama, but he did not go so far as saying that she will announce withdrawal — that is the prerogative of the candidate

And, early this afternoon, Marc Ambinder reported what can only be taken as a sign that the campaign is winding down:

Clinton Campaign staffers and former campaign staffers are being urged by the Clinton campaign’s finance department to turn in their outstanding expense receipts by the end of the week. That’s a sign, to them, that the campaign wants to get its affairs in order soon. If Clinton were staying in the race, there’d be no real reason to collect these receipts now; she’d still be raising and spending money from the same primary campaign account. The campaign is in arrears to the tune of about $11 million.

Even Bill Clinton seemed to acknowledge today that his campaign stops in South Dakota were, essentially a Clintonian last hurrah.

So is this it ? Is this what so many of us have been hoping for for so long ?

Well, maybe, but don’t be so sure about it just yet:

Everywhere, there are rumors of an imminent drop-out by Sen. Hillary Clinton, and I have indeed fanned some of those flames. But there’s no real evidence that tomorrow night’s speech will be the moment.

Maybe it will, maybe it won’t — who knows how the reality of the results tomorrow will factor into Clinton’s thinking at 6:00pm, 7:00pm, 8:00pm Tuesday night.

(…)
What happens beyond Tuesday is unknowable. Aides are prudently and predictably preparing to leave, but none have been told to. Expense receipts are being gathered by the finance department, which is something that a smart finance department would do in this case.

And there’s been at least one flat-out denial that tomorrow is the end of the road:

Senior Clinton campaign aides privy to the construction of tomorrow night’s election night celebration in New York insist that Sen. Clinton will not use the occasion to drop out of the race.

They project that Clinton will do better than expected in South Dakota, losing by a margin of less than ten points; they project a sizable loss in Montana.

So. I guess this is all a matter of tune in tomorrow, or, more likely, tune in tomorrow night.