As Mark Twain Would Say ...

"The reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated."

How many times over the past few months have we heard that Sen. Clinton's bid for the Democratic nomination is "dead"?

Let's see ... following the Iowa Caucus, and just about every primary and caucus since! Even when she wins media pundits suggest that her campaign is actually "dead" ... over ... kaput! Well I was in a room today with 1500 other women, and a few men, who don't seem to believe it.

A "Generations of Women for Hillary" fundraiser at the Omni Shoreham Hotel in Washington today raised around $1 million for the campaign. And Sen. Clinton's message to the audience was clear: "I've come back before."

Chelsea, and her grandmother Dorothy Rodham, were the "warm up" act ... and they were delightful. As the Senator entered the room, women were standing on their chairs to catch a glimpse of her. It was all very exciting.

“I’ve been counted out more than once. But thanks to all of you I’ve come back,” Clinton told the crowd. The remark sparked a thunderous, extended ovation. She went on to say, “When I was counted out in New Hampshire, it was the women of New Hampshire who came back and said, ‘No, she’s not finished yet.’ When I was counted out before Super Tuesday it was women from California to Massachusetts who came and said ‘No, we’re not finished yet.’ When I was counted out before Ohio, before Indiana, we have always come back.”

As people debate numbers, here are a couple that I think should be included. 34 million people have cast votes in primaries, while only 1 million have cast votes in caucus.

Sen. Clinton is projected to win primaries in West Virginia, Kentucky and Puerto Rico. Obama is favored in Oregon, Montana and South Dakota. Neither candidate can win enough pledged delegates to secure the nomination. At that point it will be up to superdelegates to decide.

Todd Beeton at MyDD writes:

"... I support her decision to continue. The rest of the states deserve to participate in this historic election and seeing as on MSNBC last night Howard Dean refused to ratify 2,025 as the magic number of delegates needed to win the nomination pending the results of the Rules Committee meeting on May 31st, it would appear Clinton has a credible case to make that the race goes on even if superdelegates put him over the 2,025 threshold in the coming days or weeks, at least until that committee decides what to do about MI & FL. So, fight on, Senator.

Earlier today, digby challenged Tim Russert asking:

Who the fuck anointed Tim Russert as the final arbiter of anything? His job is to analyze the political landscape not declare the decision as if he were some kind of Roman Emperor giving a thumbs up or thumbs down. It's bad enough that these gasbags put those thumbs on the scale as hard as they do, but actually taking the initiative to say when the race is over is even worse. To coin a favorite Village phrase, "it's not their place."

So take a deep breath, sit back and relax if you must, but the race for the Democratic nomination continues.