Personally I was hoping tonight would put Hillary out of her misery, but she did the minimum of what she needed to do to stay in the race; win both Texas and Ohio and win one of them by at least 10 points, which she barely did.
Tomorrow we will probably see her pledged delegate deficit shrink by 35-45, but she will still be down by 105-115 in the pledged delegates, and by 65-75 in the projected total delegates.
Yeah, she could win this, and I can no longer call Clinton supporters "die hards", but this is still Obama's to lose, and the remaining 11 (9 states and 2 territories) contests all look good for Obama for the follow reasons:
Only one of the up coming states is a big state, Pennsylvania, and he has 6 weeks to get his massive ground game in place to focus exclusively on it.
None of the remaining contests have high Hispanic American populations (though, I think Texas is proof that Obama has made good in roads with that constituency), other than Puerto Rico, but the Governor of Puerto Rico has already endorsed Obama.
Geographically all of the remaining states are in regions where Obama is strong; the South, the Northern great plains, Indiana and Kentucky (which both border Illinois), Oregon, and West Virginia (close to DC).
Pennsylvania is a concern, but as I pointed out Obama has 6 weeks to focus exclusively on it, and Clinton would need to win that state by at least 20 points to over come her delegate deficit.
However, unless Obama wins Pennsylvania (a possibility no one should rule out), then I think we are looking at a contested convention, and I don't think Clinton has a chance against McCain, unless she takes Obama as her running mate (if you don't believe me, then look at projections based on polls of how the state by state electoral college will go).
But I still see the odds as favoring Obama, and that he would do better to pick Webb, Kaine, McCaskill, or Sebelius as his running mate.
In the mean while, if you are a Democrat and didn't fear McCain, then you should now. This fight has gotten ugly, and it will tear the party apart.
There's more...