Home Run,Then Jitters

Hillary Rodham Clinton professed not to have watched her rival Barack Obama's speech on race yesterday. She and her husband should have. They might have learned something. If nothing else, they might have understood why the task of wresting the Democratic presidential nomination from his grasp may well be impossible.

If Hillary Clinton didn't watch Obama, you can bet an awful lot of those uncommitted superdelegates did. Don't think for a moment that speech won't have an impact on which way a number of them decide to go. It was that good. If you still have doubts, consider this.

Hillary Clinton is making an unscheduled trip to Detroit today. It's not because she wants to have a word with embattled Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick. She's trying to convince Michigan state legislators to reverse course, and support a June 3rd re-vote. Florida's is already dead in the water, blunting one avenue to cut into Obama's pledged delegate advantage. If she's not successful, three options remain: Seat the delegates by the January primary results (unacceptable to Obama), don't seat them at all (unacceptable to Clinton), or split delegates from both states 50-50 (advantage Obama).

The speech Barack Obama gave Tuesday has made Hillary Clinton's job harder, and she knows it. So does anyone who crunches the numbers, and the options. And just in case somebody tries to tell you how important Pennsylvania is, tell them this.

Indiana, North Carolina, West Virginia, Kentucky, and Oregon are all yet to come.