Political Bandstand

Hillary Clinton has recently gone balls out in Indiana and North Carolina in an effort to strip Barack Obama of his significant delegate lead. Some analysts have been saying Clinton needed a solid win in both states to justify even staying in the race. Other analysts felt if she could claim a large enough victory in Indiana she would have another rabbit in her hat to keep her campaign afloat. With the last of the results trickling in from the precints it appears big cajones alone weren’t enough to save Clinton from going limp on May 6th.

According to CNN, with 99% of North Carolina precincts reported, Obama had a 14 percentage point lead over Clinton at 56% with, 58 delegates in his pocket. Clinton weighed in at 42% with a 42 delegate take. North Carolina held a stash of 115 delegates total.

In Indiana, Clinton won by a miniscule margin of 2 percentage points at 52% and 37 delegates, whereas Obama walked away with 49% of the votes and 33 delegates, according to CNN. Indiana held a total of 72 delegates.

In the end, Obama came away with 91 points and Clinton took 79, suggesting Obama bludgeoned Clinton with a 12 point net delegate gain, broadening the gap between Senator Clinton and the Democratic nomination.

Hillary Clinton seemed oblivious to the fact that she was the loser of the evening, essentially declaring herself the winner when she stated, “…it’s full speed on to the White House.” What she didn’t seem to account for is that she has a near 150 point delegate gap to traverse if she even hopes to approach Obama’s lead in the Democratic race, and some analysts predicted Indiana might serve as a tie-breaker in the recent contests, but they didn’t predict Obama would win so decisively in North Carolina and that Indiana would be so close. Clinton used the rhetoric to her advantage in her Indiana speech claiming her campaign has “broken the tie.”

Clinton represents a small minority who feel this was a clear victory for her. Most don’t agree. “She got bitch slapped, Laramie,” said David Reid of the Center on Political Scrutiny, “Hillary came over the wire all flaming and trolling, but the citizens of North Carolina told her they need more than just a bunch of belly bumping.”

Before Tuesday Hillary Clinton had been reassuring everyone this would be a “game-changing” moment in the race. She was absolutely right. The game has changed in a way that’s going to make it even less possible for her to win. Huge cajones or not, the Clinton campaign may finally be spent.