Weak Showing in NC & IN for Clinton

As I said in my previous entry, Hillary Clinton needed to win either Indiana or North Carolina by a large margin last night in order to remain competitive in this nominating contest.

Well, let's just say Clinton's had better nights. She lost to Barack Obama in North Carolina by 14 percentage points (56-42). Obama carried about 90% of black voters and did very well with 1st time voters. He netted a total of 16 delegates in his first real victory since February.

But we all knew that he would win North Carolina, right? What about the highly anticipated Indiana primary? Could Clinton make up any ground there?

Well, no. She carried Indiana by two percentage points (51-49), which is hardly a victory at all at this stage in the race. Some are saying that the only reason she won is that--upon Rush Limbaugh's recommendation--Republicans voted for her because they think that she is the weaker general election candidate.

For the record, I think it is worth noting that she did very well in a state that borders Obama's home state of Illinois.

But as I mentioned earlier, she needed more than a narrow victory last night. She needed a substantive victory, because all that really matters at this point is delegates, money, and the popular vote margin.

Last night, she needed to close the delegate gap between herself and Obama to help make her case to the already-skeptical superdelegates. She also needed a psychological win so her supporters could get excited and flood her campaign with money, like they did after Pennsylvania. Also, she needed to maintain her argument that she's winning the popular vote (including the votes from the excluded contests of Michigan and Florida) legitimate for the sake of wooing uncommitted superdelegates.

Well, her poor performance last night caused her to fail in all three of those categories. The delegate gap widened by about 15 last night, she practically begged her supporters to give her money, and her "new math" for the popular vote is now irrelevant as a result of Obama's decisive victory in North Carolina.

And today, there was more bad news for Clinton. Former Democratic nominee George McGovern--whose endorsed Clinton before the Iowa caucuses--came out today to endorse Obama, and urged Clinton to drop out.

McGovern said that he has been a friend of the Clintons since 1972, but it seemed almost impossible for her to win the nomination at this point. He also said that he didn't want the same kind of Democratic in-fighting that occurred in 1972--which he said strengthened Richard Nixon's candidacy--to happen again this year.

Three other superdelegates announced their support for Obama, and you can expect a lot more to come over to his side in the next month.

The pundits have already declared that this race is over, but Clinton is determined to stay in it "until we have a nominee." I think that after last night, she will need a miracle and then some to capture the nomination.