But everyone has said she will lose so none of that matters.

Along with Clinton's surge comes more people who identify themselves as Democrats.

It fortifies the point by Pew research that 10% of Clinton voters will (sadly) vote for McCain if Obama wins.

what a little scrutiny in the press does to Obama's image

Of course she will fight on, as she has intended all along.  Maybe she gets a bit of media breathing space if she has a result which can be spun as a comeback but the delegate math is ruthless.  I still don't see a plausible scenario for her nomination barring some significant and unforeseen event.

What the Clinton campaign has learned is to go negative with a barrage of accusations close to election day before the rebuttal has time to sink in.  Unpleasant but effective tactics but a risky strategy.  We'll see.

Not to mention she does better than Obama in the head-to-heads for the last three days. Plus, Obama no longer leads McCain. I guess the NAFTA story and Rezo may have done some work, but this is nothing compared to what the GOP will throw at him. Makes you wonder.

Great. . .next thing we know, the Dems have a delegate fight at the convention.  At this point, there is no conceivable way for Clinton to take over the pledged delegate lead.  Her only hope for the nomination is a delegate fight at the convention.

Polls go down after bad news cycles.

And even with this news, her path to the nomination is...?

you've got to be kidding me right? you have completely lost all sense of objectivity.

there is NO mandate to move on. Nor do national poll numbers matter. They never have. Not when Hillary was winning the national polls by 10-20 points while losing primaries and caucuses and definitely not after she's lost 11 straight, 12or13/15 after tonight and 14or15/17 races after mississippi and wyoming.

there is no spinning this Todd. You are truly losing it.

she should drop out tonight unless she wins Ohio by over 10 and wins Texas by 10.

"say a victory in either Ohio or Texas would be reason enough for Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.) to keep her historic bid for the party's presidential nomination alive"

seems like you're projecting onto this finding.  saying that a victory "would be reason enough...to keep bid alive" is a long shot from saying that you want her to keep going.  i would certainly fall into that 2/3rds of dems as i think that clinton will use anything she can spin as a win as justification to continue forward.  that doesn't mean that i want her to do that.

furthermore, even if she does eke out a win tonight i don't really know if the situation looks that much rosier for her.  with bill richardson saying that this thing needs to be wrapped up asap and a gossiped 50 superD's ready to throw their weight behind obama, is there really much hope left for the clinton team if she doesn't absolutely blow him out of the water at this point??

if things keep chugging along this way, here's what i see as the most likely scenario:

clinton will continue to "throw kitchen sink" at obama.  more superD's and ex-candidates will endorse obama as they get increasingly uncomfortable with the negativity of the campaign.  behind the scenes, the bigwigs will start putting massive pressure on clinton to bow out gracefully for the good of the party.  if hillary still doesn't get the point, then they go nuclear-- look for massive endorsements from pelosi, gore, edwards, etc. to staunch the bloodletting and make it clear that it is time for her to throw in the towel.  at that point, even if she stays in, she'll be like the democratic huckabee.

(i could be totally wrong...just my two cents)  

Clinton was facing attacks from Obama, Edwards, Repugs, and the media.

Its politics, thats what happens.

Wow.  This is terrible.

There isn't any way for Clinton to win the nomination now (unless she wins 20%+ victories in TX and OH today).  But she's now gaining on Obama.

Maybe it's negative advertising or maybe it's just Clintonistas resisting uniting the party behind our nominee.  Either way it means the party isn't getting together and we may face more infighting, especially if Clinton chooses to fight on until Summer.

That's going to make it much harder to beat McCain in the general.

I voted in one of the states that doesn't count, Colorado. I'm 54 and have never voted for a Republican.  I've seen that Hillary is willing to burn down my Democratic house if she is not the nominee, what she can't win, she'll steal using the Super Delegates.  Guess what?  I'm willing to burn the house.  I'd rather have a President McCain, solidify our Democratic gains in the House and Senate, and wait for 2012. I'm guessing younger voter and a sizable number of African-Americans will see it the same way.

Hillary could win, but it won't be worth much. Promise.  

with Clinton carrying on.

My problem is with how she carries on.  I think there are certain rules of decorum for intra-party races.   Highlight your own strengths.  Highlight the differences between you and your opponent.  Attack your opponent's shortcomings.  But you never - UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES - give aid and comfort to the opposition party candidate in the general election.

I think Hillary has crossed that line on occasion, and she's certainly running too close to it.

She can stay in until the convention, but the "3 way comparisons - and Obama is the worst of the 3" needs to stop.

Whether said aloud - BOTH Democrats should be couching their statements, especially their attacks with at least a silent "but s/he'd be better than McCain".

If you want an example on the other side -- Obama should be couching his AUMF attacks from the perspective of "but unlike John McCain, at least she seems to have learned her lesson".

If Clinton somehow wins 3 states tonight, We can All Expect some BIGGER Surprises.

Among them,

1) IMMEDIATE Endorsement of Hillary Clinton by JOHN EDWARDS.

Edwards wants to be play a Key role in choosing the nominee. This will be his one & only shot.
The Endorsement & encouraging all his delegates to support Clinton.

Not to mention, Edwards not so warm feeling about Obama for the Fall.

2) Record Breaking March Fundraising for Clinton
( Will surpass her previous record of $35 mill
in February)- She's already had 50,000 online donations in the first three days of March.

A Big win tonight will trigger that.

3) Dramatic Shift in National Polling. It will swing Back to Clinton for good.

4) Dramatic Increase of her Polling Lead in PA.
Her lead in PA will go back to double digits.

5) Many reluctant ( due to heavy pressure from Obama fans) SuperDelegates immediately Endorse Hillary Clinton within the next two weeks

6)Clinton's polling leads in WV,KY & IN all jump to even larger double digit leads.

Its all about tonight !!!