Clinton back from the brink

Rich Lowry:

NO one would have guessed back in De cember that, come March, Hillary Clinton would be the gutsy underdog sticking it to the purveyors of political conventional wisdom. But she has done it again with wins in Ohio and Texas, just as the pundits and political professionals were pronouncing her - and wishing her - dead.

She now can continue on at least until April 22, and the last big state contest, the Pennsylvania primary.

Her situation remains dire. She trails in pledged delegates and in the overall popular vote - but still has a fighting chance, which seemed unlikely as of a week ago.

Once, these two states were Clinton's "firewalls." But her 20-point leads quickly eroded away - until she was trailing in Texas and barely ahead in Ohio, with Obama riding the wave of his 11 straight victories in February.

Clinton stopped her slide in Ohio and came back in Texas on the basis of "kitchen sink" attacks on Obama, a stark ad asserting her superior preparation to be commander-in-chief and her usual lunch-bucket economic agenda. In Ohio, voters who decided in the last three days broke 59 to 41 percent for Clinton; in Texas, 69 to 31 for her.

And what was widely panned as her "desperation" and "fear-mongering" of the final days worked. In Ohio, 57 percent of voters said she was more qualified to be commander-in-chief and in Texas, 54 percent said she was more qualified.

She held her traditional coalition, which Obama had encroached upon as he rampaged through February. In Ohio, she won voters with no college degree, voters worried about their financial situation, voters making less than $50,000, Democrats, union members, white men and women, Catholics, and older voters (she won whites over age 60 by 72 to 26 percent). In Texas, she won all those voters, plus Hispanics.

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Viewed broadly, the Democratic race is a tie. After more than 20 million votes cast, Obama leads by only by several hundred thousand votes, and out of roughly 2,500 pledged delegates, he leads only by about 100.

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With the race so close it is strange to see so many trying to get Hillary Clinton to drop out. I think it will continue to be close through at least the Pennsylvania primary and possible right down to the convention. She can still make the case that she has won the big states.

John Podhoretz makes the case that Tuesday's election punctured another media delusion. The media is so in the tank for Obama that they thought the voters were too.

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The great story would be — Hillary stays in. She’s tough. Obama feels the heat. Neither one of them has it nailed down. The superdelegates are up for grabs. It’s a fight for every last superdelegate.

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So why are so many trying to throw Hillary under her campaign bus? Even if she does not win, she is actually doing Obama and the Democrats a favor by pointing out Obama's weaknesses now. He will look even weaker if it is the Republicans pointing them out.