Will We Get Another Clinton Miracle Next Tuesday?
BY JOHN TOSCANO

Looking ahead to next Tuesday, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton needs decisive victories over Senator Barack Obama in Texas and Ohio to keep her faltering candidacy alive.

But all signs point to Obama victories, which would virtually mean the end of the race.

The stakes are very high, with 228 delegates up for grabs in Texas and 161 more in Ohio.

Obama already has an edge, leading Clinton by slightly more than 100 delegates. Clinton would have to take the lion's share of the delegates to make a difference in the overall race at this point, but it's more likely that she and Obama will either run close together and will share the prize, or Obama will score a clear victory. This will allow him to extend his overall lead in delegates won.

At this point, Obama's 11-race winning streak over the past three weeks has resulted in his overtaking Clinton in the delegate race. This feat has created the impression that he is out of Clinton's reach and has started some Clinton delegates defecting to Obama. What's more, super delegates are beginning to peel off from Clinton, adding to Obama's invulnerability.

A decisive twin victory next Tuesday will hasten this process.

As the campaign comes closer to that day of decision, six days from now, the signs pointing to a final major victory for Obama have also been apparent in the candidates' altered campaign styles.

Obama, riding a streak of 11 easy, double digit victories, has become bolder in his attacks and somewhat cocky and overconfident in his manner.

Clinton, on the other hand, has upped the tempo of her responses to Obama's attacks on her health-care-for-all plan and her position on foreign trade resorting to name calling as her only weapon.

Another disturbing sign is that Clinton has failed to maintain her leads in the polls, a pattern that started in earlier races and developed into a trend. It happened again in Wisconsin, where she led in the polls but was overtaken by Obama when the pace of the campaign picked up as the election got closer.

Clinton also started out with comfortable leads over Obama in Texas and Ohio. Although the latest Quinnipiac poll shows her leading Obama by 9 percent (51 to 40) in Ohio, it's expected Obama will close the gap as next Tuesday gets closer and he'll build momentum to overtake her.

The Illinois Senator's task is easier in Texas- he's already ahead of Clinton by four points (50 to 46) in Monday's Quinnipiac poll, so he'll probably build on that lead when the real voting starts.

A sign of Clinton's gradual fade out in the race is her getting more desperate as each day of campaigning comes along.