Hillary's Choice.

As Clinton and her supporters continue to attempt to justify her decision to stagger on, it's well worth a visit to the Slate Delegate counter to have a look at just how realistic her chances of winning are with the contests that remain.

Even if she wins every remaining contest taking 80% of the vote and Obama taking only 20%, she will still be 34 delegates short of Obama.

That's how bad "the maths problem" is for Hillary. Under these circumstances it seems astonishing that she is keeping going, but that's the message coming out of her camp this morning.

While the US media have mostly pronounced the race for the Democratic presidential nomination effectively over, the Clinton camp is pursuing a two-pronged strategy to stay alive: challenging party rules and positing her superior electability. The candidate whose platform is called "Solutions for America" is now frantically seeking solutions for herself.

Mrs Clinton told USA Today she was more viable because of a broader base of support among working class whites. "There's a pattern emerging here," she said. "These are the people you have to win if you're a Democrat in sufficient numbers to actually win the election. Everybody knows that."

Her campaign is desperate to recover the psychological advantage which has swung heavily towards Mr Obama after his win in North Carolina on Tuesday and near-miss in Indiana. She is hoping for a mood-change again if she can win in West Virginia next Tuesday, which appears likely.

There seems little chance that she will abandon her quest before 31 May, when the Democrat Party's rules committee will convene to consider her campaign's appeal for delegates from Michigan and Florida to be seated at the nominating convention in August. Primary elections in both states were deemed void, because they moved their polling dates forward in violation of party rules.

Having thrown the kitchen sink at Obama, she now threatens to throw it towards the entire Democratic Party, insisting that she will tear down the whole party unless she is given what she wants. Her supporters encourage such behaviour, choosing to see it as indicative of Hillary as "a fighter" rather than the petulant loser that she actually is.

I understand, from reading the few Hillary sites which exist that, for many women, this is a highly emotive issue. The idea that, in their lifetimes, they could see the first ever female President of the United States has fuelled much of their enthusiasm for this campaign. And I freely admit that, early in this campaign, I would have been delighted had Hillary become the Democratic nominee. However, what is simply undeniable is that she has lost this race. Let's not, at this point, get into why she has lost, let's simply accept the mathematical certainty that - anyway you add up the numbers - Hillary is not, and never will be, the Democratic nominee.

She's now arguing that Florida and Michigan should be seated, despite the fact that she herself is on record stating that these votes would not count. This constant changing of the argument and moving of the goalposts does not lend any credibility to her campaign and, indeed, simply smacks of desperation and the feeling that she will do or say anything to win.

Party elders will also worry that changing the rules of the game now would trigger civil war in the party if it ended up denying Mr Obama a victory he would seem to have won fairly. A first warning shot against Mrs Clinton was fired by former president Jimmy Carter who said on the Jay Leno show that the states had "disqualified themselves". Forgiving them now, "would be a catastrophe for the party," he said.

As the first ever woman to run for the right to be President, Hillary no doubt feels the burden of many people's aspirations on her shoulders. However, she does not aid the feminist cause by ignoring reality and threatening to harm the Democratic party unless she is given what she wants.

Indeed, as the first ever woman to run for the right to become the Presidential nominee, Hillary would do much more for the feminist cause if she remembered at all times her dignity.

Her campaign is historic, although - at times - it appears as if Hillary has forgotten that.

She will, for all time, be the first woman to run for the right to be the Presidential nominee. I would prefer if she would leave a legacy which future generations of women could admire, rather than debase herself by going on long after it was apparent to everyone that she has lost.

For, if she damages the party rather than accept her inevitable defeat, she makes it harder for other women to follow in her footsteps.

It would have been wonderful had Hillary become the first ever female President of the United States, but it's never going to be. The numbers simply don't add up. Hillary should accept that and leave the field with grace. That would do more for the cause of feminism than the course she is currently contemplating.

She has already made history, now she should leave a record that women can look back on with pride. A noble loser is better than the alternative. And, at the moment, those are Hillary's only real choices.

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Tags: Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, US election 2008, Democratic presidential nominee