Hillary: The Check's in the mail. Honest.

Pressure from supporters of Barack Obama on Hillary Clinton to drop out of the race may be having an effect. Unless she implodes and loses in Pennsylvania and Indiana, Clinton appears to be committed to dragging out the process at least until early June when the primaries and caucuses are over. But the more Obama Nation can make her look like a spoiler, the harder it will be for her to keep a steady infusion of the lifeblood of politics: money.

Case in point-- Politico reports that Hillary Clinton's campaign didn't pay health insurance bills.

Aides are downplaying the revelation as you might expect, but it hints at larger problems that may be coming in terms of the massive expenditures required to keep the Clinton political machine running.

It's embarrassing on several levels.

Clinton has made health care a central feature of her campaign and even though aides say the actual coverage of campaign staff and their families have not been affected, it suggests attending to health care for the people who work for her isn't a top priority.

The unpaid bills also undermine her "Ready on Day 1" argument. Running a campaign is a lot easier than running he country and if you can't make sure the bills are paid on time the same way anyone running a small business has to do, it raises questions about your management skills.

Nothing seems likely to stop Barack Obama's endless supply of campaign donations, but if Clinton's money starts drying up, it could accelerate the process toward the all but inevitable conclusion of this race-- that she loses.

Campaign Finance: Obama’s First Moment of Truth?

The lofty idealism of Obama Nation will face a litmus test if he becomes the Democratic nominee. He has said previously that he would accept public financing if the as then undetermined Republican opponent would do the same. That was before Obama raised $32 million this month alone and expanded his pool of campaign contributors to 650,000. Many of those people contribute online in small amounts so they can be repeatedly tapped for additional money at virtually no expense to the campaign.

John McCain upped the ante recently and said he would do just that. A strong advocate of campaign finance reform, McCain’s name (along with liberal democrat Wisconsin Senator Russ Feingold) is on the most recent major campaign finance reform law. Sticking with his principles on this issue has cost McCain support within segments of his own party that view this as a restriction on First Amendment rights of free speech.

So if you’re Obama, what do you do? If he takes public financing, he agrees to restrict spending to about Candidates who accept public funding are eligible for about $85 million, which is tens of millions of dollars less than he is likely to raise privately. So far, Obama has not faced serious challenges in terms of matching his actions to his rhetoric. This issue could prove to be the first of many such ethical dilemmas and may provide some additional clues as to Obama’s priorities.

My guess is that if Obama is the democratic nominee, he’ll reject public financing, endure the hit on reversing himself and take the money. As vitally important as campaign finance reform is, it often seems as if there’s a serious disconnect on this issue with many voters. A lot of people seem to recoil at the idea that funding for a political campaign should come out of their pocket. They generally fail to see that the special interests with deep pockets that are now the lifeblood of a corrupt system cost them far more in the long run.

Perhaps Obama will surprise us, but I doubt it. He’s a good politician and in terms of balancing risks and benefits, this would be a very difficult juncture to side with ethics and reform rather than doing what it takes to win.