Clinton aides losing hope

Yes, Obama, not Clinton, was the one who said Indiana would be the “tiebreaker” between a Clinton win in Pennsylvania and an Obama win in North Carolina. And, yes, he once talked about winning the state, ignorant of possible downstate bias and GOP crossovers.

Nonetheless, even if Clinton holds on by the narrowest of margins, it’s a statistical tie, she’s running out of “comebacks,” and she won with the support of a lot people who wn’t vote for her in November. No wonder some of her aides are becoming more disparaged.

“Absent some sort of miracle on May 31, it’s going to be tough for us,” said a senior Clinton official who spoke on the condition of anonymity in order to be frank. “We lost this thing in February. We're doing everything we can now . . . but it's just an uphill battle.”

And, if Timmeh Russert, dean of Sunday’s TV talking coneheads, says Obama has wrapped it up, then it’s time to be more discouraged, right?

“We now know who the Democratic nominee is gonna be, and no one’s gonna dispute it,” before listing reasons why it would behoove Clinton to reconsider going forward with her campaign “hoping against all hope.”

That said, another Clintonista “player” is offering a different take, one not helpful to either candidate.

A Clinton adviser said the situation was increasingly becoming one in which “she cannot be nominated and he can’t get elected.”

I don’t know if the second half of the statement is true or not, but the (Jeremiah) Wright elephant in Obama’s living room isn’t going to do anything but go on a steroid diet if he gets the nomination.

On the other hand, the electability issue of Obama winning southern states with large black percentages in Democratic primaries, but states that haven’t gone Democratic since 1976 for Carter, and 1960 before that, is a legitimate matter of discussion and debate.