About last night…

A couple of things are worth-noting this morning.

First, despite whatever the Clinton camp says today following their wins in Ohio, Texas and Rhode Island last night, even under the best-case scenarios moving forward, it is virtually impossible for Clinton to go into Denver with more delegates than Obama. Marc Ambinder from The Atlantic explains why.

Second, I think the spin of these wins being a rebuke of Obama or a huge momentum swing for Clinton are overstated. She was favored in each of those states, if I’m not mistaken, and by huge margins just a few weeks ago. If you’re looking at who is on an upward swing, I still think it is Obama.

Last week, Jon Taplin graphed the swing I speak of:

Now, all that isn’t to say that last night wasn’t a huge win for Clinton. However, it wasn’t a win of delegates. She may have only won 2 out of the 1000+ needed to win the nomination and Obama might have even won more last night. What she won was good PR and whatever additional donations she’ll be able to solicit from donors wanting to help push this perceived momentum even further. (Though, Obama will most-certainly get a wave of new donations today and throughout this week, as well). So, really, all it comes down to is a media win. She’s won the right to claim victory, talk about momentum, hold off the pressure to drop out and stick around for a few more weeks.

I’m torn on whether I think that’s a good thing or not. It has to be said that this is democracy at work and that alone makes the process exciting. But as many people suspect, the longer this fight rages on between Obama and Clinton, the easier a win for McCain will be. That, of course, wouldn’t be the case if the Clinton’s weren’t fighting dirty.

Check out these stories about some of her tactics from the last few days.

Did the Clinton Campaign Doctor Obama Footage to Make Him ‘Blacker’?

Latest Clinton tactic: Fake news reports

‘Did I say Osama? I meant Obama!’ says Clintonite

People are tired of this kind of politics. I know I am.

And one last thing…this: is one of the dumbest things I have heard her say.

At the end of my Quick and Linky case for Obama post, I included a video by Lawrence Lessig, in which he laid out his reasons for supporting Obama. One of those was that her campaign strategy against Obama – “35 years of experience, etc.” – would be completely useless against McCain in the general election, because, after all, he has more experience than her. This ridiculous statement in the video above is a godsend for McCain. Don’t think that that is the last you’ll see of that clip. If she wins the Democratic nomination, I guarantee that will be in a McCain commercial. If the debate is about experience, McCain wins without question. I cannot believe she said that.