Hillary Clinton's vow to continue her candidacy all the way through August is giving many Democratic loyalists heartburn. Clinton ominously told the Washington Post on Sunday, ""If we don't resolve (the dispute over Michigan and Florida), we'll resolve it at the convention -- that's what credentials committees are for." The prospect of the Democratic race lasting until the Denver convention in August has caused scores of Democrats to break out in a cold sweat, as they envision open warfare during the late summer months. I'm here to reassure all the nervous nellies in the Democratic party that this frightening scenario will never come to pass. Here's why:

1) Money. One of the dirty little secrets of this primary season is that the Clinton campaign is broke. As of the latest reporting to the Federal Elections Commission, Clinton had 11 million dollars in cash, 9 million dollars in debts, and 5 million that she had personally loaned her campaign in February. When you do the arithmetic, that puts her 3 million dollars in the red. Worse, the website politico.com reported yesterday that the Clinton campaign has for the last several months resorted to a time-honored strategy of money management: stiffing vendors. Numerous vendors, from caterers in New York, to photographers and event planners in Iowa, to telecommunications companies all over, have reported that the Clinton campaign is simply not paying their bills. These vendors, terrified that they will never be paid, have gone public, warning other small businesses to get money up front from the Clinton campaign before providing any services. Here is how politico.com described Hillary's money crunch:

She owed Iowa’s Sioux City Art Center Board of Trustees $3,500 for catering and venue costs, New Hampshire’s Winnacunnet Cooperative School District $4,400 in event costs, Qwest $24,000 for phone service, various branches of the Iowa-based supermarket chain Hy-Vee $15,000 for food, beverages and catering, and $7,700 to Ohio and Massachusetts branches of the theatrical stage employees’ union, for equipment costs.

In fact, about a third of the nearly 700 individual debts Clinton reported at the end of February were for various types of “event expenses,” including $319,000 for catering and venue costs, $420,000 for equipment, $11,000 for photography and $9,000 for security.

In addition to her many debts to the small businesses that set up her campaign events, it is now clear that many of her top staffers have gone unpaid:

Some of Clinton’s biggest debts are to pollster and chief strategist Mark Penn, who’s owed $2.5 million; direct mail company MSHC Partners, which is owed $807,000; phone-banking firm Spoken Hub, which is waiting for $771,000; and ad maker Mandy Grunwald, who’s owed $467,000.

Barring a major influx of cash, it is unimaginable that the campaign can continue to function carrying this kind of debt. It is certainly true that historically, many presidential campaigns have taken years to pay off accumulated debt, sometimes settling on pennies on the dollar, so the Clinton campaign is not unique in this regard. However, when companies become aggrieved enough to go public and label the campaign a deadbeat operation, it raises the specter of a public relations disaster. When your campaign is based on the notion of "getting America back to work," and that of empowering the little guy, it seems morally untenable to balance your books by stiffing the many companies that have set up your rallies and town hall meetings.

It is interesting to reflect on the source of Hillary's money problem. By conventional standards, she has actually raised a substantial amount of money during this election cycle. Further, there are many supporters who would like to contribute more to the Clinton campaign. They are prohibited however, by campaign finance law. Campaign finance law limits individual contributions to a candidate during the primary season, to $2300. Many of the well-heeled individuals who have supported the Clinton campaign would love to pitch in another $10,000--or more. Their hands are tied however, by the legal limits. The Obama campaign, by contrast, has a large army of small contributors--50 to 100 dollars--who are well below the legal ceiling and can continue to financially support his campaign.

As I have stated many times before, Hillary's threshold for embarrassment is astonishingly high, so she may decide that a reputation as a deadbeat is a small price to pay for the survival of her campaign. However, it is a difficult sale to make, to go into Johnstown or Altoona, preaching populism while refusing to pay your bills. Asked about the matter on MSNBC yesterday, Clinton Communications Director Howard Wolfson said artfully, "We're paying our bills in a timely manner."

Disinformation. As consumers, we are shockingly naive about accepting at face value candidates' statements about the future of their campaigns. The day before he dropped out of the race, John Edwards was telling us that poverty was the "fight of my life," and he would continue his candidacy until the convention. The next day, when he suffered another last place showing, this time in his birthplace of South Carolina, he was forced to confront reality and leave the race. And if I may digress for a moment, how can a man who has designated poverty the fight of his life still not have endorsed a candidate by now, any candidate? If John Edwards allows the North Carolina primary to come and go without making any endorsement, without helping the Democratic party move beyond its current gridlock, he will have left a lasting stain on his reputation. Mitt Romney, one day before dropping out of the Republican race, was assuring voters that he was in the race to stay. That was presumably before his wife got him behind closed doors and beat the daylights out of him for spending the family fortune.

What I am saying is that candidates' bold statements that they will "fight to the last day," should be taken in the same vein as the sports owner who declares that his manager's job is secure; usually that means that the manager should put a "for sale" sign in front of his house. And so it is with Hillary's recent statements. All of the bravado that we hear is for public consumption, to reassure potential contributors, and to maintain the morale of her supporters. Make no mistake about it, barring an exceptional showing in Pennsylvania, the Clinton campaign is on life support. And the public is starting to recognize this fact, as the Gallup tracking poll shows Obama's national lead over Hillary ballooning to 10 points yesterday, and leveling off at 8 points today.

North Carolina. Even if Hillary manages to deliver a win in Pennsylvania, she is going to run into a buzz saw in North Carolina. The Tar Heel state is made for Barack Obama. With African-Americans making up half the Democratic electorate, and a significant number of upscale, educated whites in the "research triangle" of Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill, it would take a miracle for Hillary to be competitive in the state. The latest Gallup poll shows her trailing by 18 percentage points. She will suffer a crushing defeat in North Carolina, not unlike her losses in Virginia, Maryland, and South Carolina. And if she should lose in Indiana on the same day (May 6), her campaign will come to a screeching halt.

So the next time you hear a Democratic operative wringing his hands and predicting doom for the party, just think about the array of land mines that lie in front of the Clinton campaign. It won't be long now.