Back on February 18th, I wrote "No Matter The Numbers, Huckabee Soldiers On" in this blog, saying that "Mathematically, Huckabee has almost no chance to stop John McCain from getting the GOP nomination."

Let me make that apply to the Democratic race now.

Mathematically, Hillary Clinton has almost no chance to stop Barack Obama from getting the Democratic nomination.

So as with Huckabee, the question that we must ask right now is how long will Hillary Clinton continue to run around the country holding herself out as the most electable candidate for November.

On Thursday, Clinton went to West Virginia, South Dakota and Oregon, but she was running very late from the start, making me wonder whether she was having some kind of Come To Jesus talk with her staff that had her behind schedule.

You can go on both liberal and conservative blogs and find all kinds of humorous bits as people skewer Clinton for refusing to give in.

One of my colleagues compared her to the Black Knight in Monty Python and the Holy Grail, who loses limb after limb, but still talks trash.

One blogger compared her to the dead parrot in a Python skit, in which the owner says the bird is just "stunned."

I've gotten a lot of emails about this subject in recent weeks, as most people seem to think that Hillary is staying in because she has an Evil Plan to destroy Obama and then be the nominee in 2012.

"Obviously she can't win at this point, and she knows it," wrote Phil Hager of Atlanta. "I believe they are doing is trying to beat the you-know-what out of Barack so that they both lose.  Then, McCain becomes president for four years and is done.  Then Clinton runs again, and wins."

I think it's much more simple than that.

At some point, Clinton is going to have to wake up, look herself in the mirror and say, "I didn't win.  I lost."

That isn't easy for anyone who has run for President, especially someone who was probably thinking more about her strategy in November than her strategy in the primaries.

A few years ago, we had Sen. Joe Lieberman staying the Democratic primary race and proclaiming "Joe-mentum," while people ridiculed him for not realizing that he was only getting a few percentage points in every primary.

Huckabee also drew his fair share of abuse earlier this year, when it became obvious that he wasn't going to win.

Sure, Hillary has a mathematical chance of prevailing. 

Yes, Obama could lose.  It's possible.

But it isn't likely.

I'm sure she knows it.  When will she admit that?  It could be anytime from now until mid June.

Stay tuned.