Clinton’s victories keep the race alive

What happened

Hillary Clinton, on the brink of elimination from the Democratic presidential race, rejuvenated her campaign this week with crucial primary wins in Ohio and Texas. Following 11 consecutive losses since Super Tuesday, Clinton touted her 10-point win in Ohio and narrow victory in Texas as proof that Democrats are not yet ready to crown Barack Obama as their standard-bearer against Republican John McCain in November. “For everyone who’s ever been counted out but refused to be knocked out,” Clinton told a cheering crowd in Columbus, “this one’s for you.” Clinton also won in Rhode Island, while Obama captured Vermont.

Despite his popular-vote losses in the big states, Obama picked up at least 173 delegates to Clinton’s 185, allowing him to hold on to a 100-delegate lead in the all-important delegate count. “We have nearly the same delegate lead as we did this morning,” Obama declared as the results were coming in, “and we are on our way to winning this nomination.” This week’s tally brought the Democrats closer to the prospect of the nomination’s being decided at the August convention by the so-called superdelegates—elected officials and party bigwigs who can vote however they please. At the very least, both candidates said the campaign would continue through the next large primary, in Pennsylvania on April 22.

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What the editorials said

Clinton won by legitimately pointing out Obama’s chief “vulnerability,” said The Wall Street Journal. Her campaign commercial asking whom Americans would rather have in the White House “to answer the phone at 3 a.m.” was a sharp reminder of Obama’s national-security inexperience. And if it worked against Obama in a matchup with Hillary Clinton, imagine how the issue would play if Obama were pitted against decorated war hero and military expert John McCain.

Many Democrats are now fretting that as their contest drags on, McCain can begin pursuing a general-election strategy, said the New York Daily News. But Democrats should take heart: With each passing week, both of their candidates are getting tested, vetted, and sharpened. As a result, “they should emerge with a standard-bearer who is the stronger” for having survived the ordeal.

What the columnists said

The Democratic race now comes down to one question, said Mike Littwin in the Denver Rocky Mountain News: “What do you believe in, momentum or math?” Clinton has the buzz, but when you crunch the delegate numbers, “the math is still against her—way against her.” To catch up to Obama, Clinton must win every primary from now on by at least 20 points, a feat she has managed only once, in her onetime home state of Arkansas. Her best hope is the superdelegates, but they have been breaking toward Obama.

Don’t forget about Florida and Michigan, said Joan Walsh in Salon.com. As punishment for moving up their primaries, those states were stripped

of their delegates. Clinton won those contests, but it would be unfair to seat the delegates now. At the same time, it’s self-defeating for Democrats to disenfranchise delegations from two states it desperately needs in November. The solution is to “revote.” Yes, it will give Clinton a shot to catch up to Obama, but it will also give Obama a chance to definitively pull ahead. And isn’t that better than turning over this decision to a bunch

of superdelegates?

One thing is clear, said John Nichols in TheNation.com: Repub­licans are much happier this week than they were last week. It’s not just that they would prefer to run against the much-hated Hillary, but also that the Clinton tactic of building herself up by knocking Obama down makes him more vulnerable, too. If the Clintonistas maintain this course, “they could be responsible for two defeats: Clinton’s for the nomination and Obama’s for the presidency.”

What next?

There is a string of small primaries over the next few weeks, but not with enough delegates at stake to alter the race. So the campaigns are pouring nearly all their resources into Pennsylvania, which a Clinton spokesman called “the new Iowa.” The next seven weeks will be grueling, said Mark Halperin in Time.com. “To get an idea of how long a period that is in political years, the Iowa caucuses—remember them?—were only eight weeks ago.”