Some commentators say that Hillary Clinton is calmly preparing to concede defeat. They say she’s using softer language, she’s refraining from attacking Obama, and she’s paving the way to convince her supporters to support her Democrat rival.

But pundits, like Chris Matthews of MSNBC (who in fairness, could be pretty accurately described as ‘anti-Hillary’), aren’t convinced. Yesterday Matthews told Clinton’s communications director Howard Wolfson on air, “you guys are like those Japanese soldiers, still fighting in 1953…. After the Battleship Missouri signing ceremony [ending WWII], you’re still holding on.”

Certainly that’s what today’s letter from Bill Clinton suggests:

But the Clintons also sent out a different kind of letter yesterday. An open letter to Barack Obama, in fact.

The blog Vichy Democrats reports:

Earlier today, faced with the prospect of their Michigan card going away, and with indispensable Congressional superdelegates literally sitting in a meeting with Obama and deciding which way they’ll swing, the Clinton campaign has scrambled – I’ll tell you how we know they scrambled in a sec – to release, very publicly, and in electronic form suitable for beaming to Superdelegates’ Blackberries mid-meeting, an open letter to Obama, daring him to support the seating of Michigan’s and Florida’s voters according to the results of their flawed primaries, which both candidates previously swore to discount. That letter is a picture window into the rapidly crumbling mind of Hillary Clinton in the waning days of her lifelong dream of becoming President.

The letter was hastily prepared. We know this because, in a game where letters like this are planned and stockpiled weeks ahead of time and then magically appear in reporters’ email inboxes when the timing is exactly right, like Athena springing full-armored from the head of Zeus, this key letter has not one, but two typographical errors. I can’t remember any other Clinton press release, even the workaday ones reporting the candidate’s schedule, containing a typo…

Here’s the letter in full.  

At the same time as the letter came out, Obama jetted into Capitol Hill like a rock star. The Huffington Post reports:

Even Speaker Nancy Pelosi left her weekly press briefing and made a beeline for the House floor to say hello. And the Capitol Hill press corps surrounded the House Chamber to catch him on his way out and fire questions about such an unusual move for a presidential candidate, even if he is a senator.

Watch the walk n talk here.

Meanwhile, here’s just a snapshot of headlines. And more than one comparison to the final scenes of The Terminator. You know, where Arnie just wouldn’t die.

Almost there: In cartoons there is often a moment when a hapless character, having galloped over a cliff, is still unaware of the fact and hangs suspended in the air, legs pumping wildly, until realisation dawns, gravity intervenes and downfall ensues. Hillary Clinton’s campaign looks a bit like that this week. — The Economist

Obama v McCain: Let’s Get it On: Hillary Clinton, who now resembles the robot’s crawling hand in the final scenes of “The Terminator,” can plausibly argue to the superdelegates that much of this is electoral bunk. n Indiana, her share of the white vote to his, men and women combined, was 60-40, a huge lead. In North Carolina, 61-37. They won’t buy it. Ever. The “first woman” running for president would have to be pulling 90% of her own piece of history, women, to compete with his achievement. — Wonder Land, The Wall Street Journal

The Five Mistakes Clinton Made: For all her talk about “full speed on to the White House,” there was an unmistakably elegiac tone to Hillary Clinton’s primary-night speech in Indianapolis. And if one needed further confirmation that the undaunted, never-say-die Clintons realize their bid might be at an end, all it took was a look at the wistful faces of the husband and the daughter who stood behind the candidate as she talked of all the people she has met in a journey “that has been a blessing for me.” — Karen Tumulty, Time Magazine 

Oh, and something about that McCain guy:

A perfect calm for John McCain: John McCain has used these weeks of Republican calm to dive into the Democratic lunch pail. This strategy clearly assumes a Barack Obama candidacy. If demographics are destiny — as the political sages keep telling us — Democratic demographics may offer some choice cuts to the presumed Republican nominee. By dumb luck, Republicans have chosen their one candidate who projects a moderate image, hasn’t alienated Latinos and offers an appealing life story to boot. — RealClearPolitics

And here’s an amusing video. Hillary Clinton as Adolf Hitler in the bunker in Downfall: