There has been a lot chatter (and some indications from her staffers) that Hillary Clinton isn’t going to fight to the bitter end and burn down the Democratic Party along the way. But then there is this interview with Clinton herself:

“I have a much broader base to build a winning coalition on,” she said in an interview with USA TODAY. As evidence, Clinton cited an Associated Press article “that found how Sen. Obama’s support among working, hard-working Americans, white Americans, is weakening again, and how whites in both states who had not completed college were supporting me . . . There’s a pattern emerging here,” she said.

Has she ever come right out like this and said “Whites aren’t voting for him” before? She’s talked about “working-class” voters and women seniors, of course. But not once, in my recollection, has she spoken openly of any racial divide.

Why on earth would she do this if she’s not still committed to trying to scare superdelegates and whip up the vote in West Virginia?  There doesn’t seem much point, if she actually has the Democrats’ best interests at heart. (And it won’t help her get the VP slot, either.) Frankly, it makes about as much sense as her “3 a.m.” ad or her remarks touting John McCain’s preparedness as commander-in-chief. All those suspicions about her preference for a potential one-term McCain presidency rather than a two-term Obama one are only going to increase with comments like this.