When should a presidential candidate call it quits?

I feel I haven't been covering the American elections as much as I should. After all, so much is happening. The lone Republican, John McCain, is still trying to drum up support for the Iraq war, and the situation is looking a bit better there. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama continue to duke it out in the Democratic foray, but he seems to be ahead at the current moment, in popular sentiment, delegate count, and within many influential circles. It's a harsh race indeed: Bill Clinton recently said there are two patriots in the election run, his wife and her Republican opponent.

Anyway, John Dickerson wrote an interesting piece in the Washington Post (which, on a totally unrelated note, won a large number of Pulitzer Prizes this year)

At some point in the next weeks or months,either Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton or Sen. Barack Obama is going to face a lonely moment. Standing at the bathroom sink with a toothbrush, or huddling with aides at campaign headquarters or collapsed on a couch at home with his or her spouse, one of them will decide that it's over.

It's still too soon to say who will have to give up their dream of occupying the Oval Office for the next few years.


I got a call from Obama offices today ("Would you like to go to Pennsylvania and rally supporters?"), which reminded me that I signed up on his campaign website. I can't say I support him enough to go all the way to Pennsylvania though...