Earlier today I read that democratic operatives in Pennsylvania are doing their damnedest to keep Ralph Nader off the ballot.

I see this as further evidence that Hillary Clinton has every intention of winning the nomination -- which, even assuming she wins Texas, Ohio, and Pennsylvania, she will have to win by the hardest of hardball tactics

Hillary's hardest hardball of them all is Harold Ickes, who plans to win by manipulating the superdelegates -- by any means necessary:

...Ickes believes that if Obama has only a very narrow lead, Clinton could get away with using the superdelegates to overturn that lead.

But I wonder. It seems to me that a huge battle and a badly divided party would result, especially if black voters felt that their party had betrayed them by using the votes of big shots to replace the will of the people.

"There will be some hurt feelings initially," Ickes said. "But in a very tight election, Barack Obama will swing in behind Hillary Clinton and black people will vote for her and she will be able to bring in Hispanic voters also."

...she's ahead in Ohio and holding her own in Texas. She's done her part, now it's up to voters and her supporters.

The media and her opponents count her out at their peril. They could well end up with egg on their faces, just like after New Hampshire. It's not over.

And it won't be over for quite some time.

Once again, I hope Obama can stop Hillary. I say this not only because I'm a McCain supporter and I think Obama would be ultimately easier to beat, but because I do not want a return of the sleazy hardball Clintons to the White House.

However, two salient facts stand out:

1. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton are in a virtual draw -- one which will likely remain; and

2. Obama is up against a very powerful machine which is quite capable of ensuring her victory through hardball tactics.

However, if we factor in the emotion, a hardball victory by Hillary will come at enormous cost, both to her and the Democratic Party.

Emotions run high in politics, and they will run very high with Obama supporters, many of whom are young activists who will believe they have been cheated out of a legitimate victory and shafted by business-as-usual establishment types, whose hardball tactics will be seen as loathsome and dishonest (as well as quite possibly racist).

Many in this newly embittered group could very well be expected to support Nader.

(Assuming, of course, that the Nader candidacy survives the forces of Harold Ickes....)