Left Flank

I've made my peace with my wasted Florida primary vote, but a vote for Hillary Clinton is a vote for Clinton tricks and a brokered convention. I cannot vote Republican, because of Senator McCain's healthcare proposals. Perhaps, Senator Clinton can catch fire

Meanwhile, with every win, Obama makes more sense. He is no longer a leap of faith but a real winner. And what once seemed a major threat to his chances--uncertainty about the role of his race--has faded away. It was Obama’s great luck to preface the March 4 votes in Ohio and Texas by winning without enough black voters to make for a storyline about a racial divide.

Conversely, Hillary has been completely stripped of what was once her greatest asset: inevitability. Many of her early supporters believed the Clinton machine was virtually invulnerable. Mark Penn had mapped the electoral matrix. Her press team operated with the flawless efficiency of a Secret Service detail. Bill had telepathic powers over fellow Democrats. But none of it has worked so far. And if none of it has worked until now, why should it work on March 4--which even Hillary’s defenders call her last stand? And why should voters in those states expect it to work in November? (And even if the media has at times been unfair to Hillary, well, cracking the national media’s bizarre code is part of being a successful politician.)

It’s hard to see what hope remains for her. Maybe the Clintons can crank up their attacks on Obama one more notch. But that would risk further damaging their already shaky reputation with large segments of the Democratic Party--especially among the new generation of Democrats who will be around longer than the fading 1990s establishment.

Now, Hillary’s last hope may be that voters in Ohio and Texas will be in a contrarian mood. Perhaps, after hearing for the next week that it is now Barack Obama who is inevitable, and Hillary who is doomed, they will feel the same sympathy that New Hampshire did, and hand the Clintons one last reprieve. For old time’s sake.

Just as long as there's not a broked convention!