HILLARY Clinton is clinging on to the presidential nomination race by her fingernails after failing to dent Barack Obama's lead after primary elections in Indiana and North Carolina.
And revelations last night that she has lent her campaign $6 million (£3m) to pay outstanding bills have further damaged her chances of matching her rival in the remaining contests.
Mr Obama has confounded critics, and pollsters, by winning a double-digit victory in North Carolina on Tuesday.
Although Mrs Clinton squeaked home to victory in Indiana, the results leave her further adrift from Mr Obama in the race for nomination delegates.
The result puts Mr Obama in the driving seat for the six primaries that remain: He has a majority of 169 elected delegates, a lead almost impossible for Mrs Clinton to match from the 217 delegates still up for grabs.
Mr Obama acknowledged as much in his victory speech in North Carolina: "Tonight we stand less than 200 delegates away from securing the Democratic nomination."
Mrs Clinton insists she will keep fighting, saying her victory, by 51 per cent to 49, in Indiana, was a tie-breaker: "We've come from behind, we've broken the tie, and, thanks to you, it's full speed on to the White House."
The reality may be rather different. Her staff announced yesterday that she has loaned her campaign $6 million from her own funds, following a $5 million loan earlier this year. The Clintons have an estimated personal fortune of $100 million.
There is nothing improper about a candidate financing their own campaign, but the loan is an admission that she has failed to match the fund-raising power of the Obama campaign. It will weaken her argument to the party-appointed superdelegates that she is the stronger candidate.
The 277 un- committed superdelegates, who include senators, congress members and party chiefs, must still decide who will be the nominee, with neither candidate able to cross the finishing line on their own. But the chances that they will opt for Mrs Clinton after these latest results are diminishing.
Some commentators say that, after Indiana and North Carolina, the race is effectively over: "We now know who the Democratic nominee is going to be," said cable news channel MSNBC's anchor, Tim Russert, who speculated that Mrs Clinton's campaign is all-but dead.
Certainly Mrs Clinton's options have narrowed after this week's results. She had hoped to take advantage of what has been the lowest point of Mr Obama's campaign thus far. His poll numbers had plunged after his pastor, Jeremiah Wright, made incendiary comments about race in the media. Mrs Clinton still leads among both women voters and blue-collar whites, but these leads are narrowing. For Mr Obama's supporters, it is proof that the Wright affair is behind him.
"This has been the worst three weeks of his campaign," one Democratic party source told The Scotsman. "With Rev Wright he got beat up a bit, but he came through it."
Short of some new scandal engulfing the Obama campaign, Mrs Clinton's last realistic chance is to convince the party to reinstate the delegates of Florida and Michigan, where she won comfortably earlier this year.
Both states had their elections ruled invalid by the Democratic Party after bringing their primary dates forward without permission. The party's rules and bylaws committee has the power to order to re-validate the results when it meets on 31 May.
But such a decision could be open to a legal challenge from Mr Obama, who did not even stand in Michigan following party instructions.
Without the Florida and Michigan delegates, there is no realistic chance of Mrs Clinton catching Mr Obama. Nor does there appear much likelihood that the superdelegates will go against the popular vote and give her the nomination regardless.
Carl Bernstein, a Clinton biographer, told CNN that her campaign staff are floating the idea that she should be vice-president, running alongside Mr Obama.
The Obama campaign staff have already scotched the idea, but Mr Bernstein said that Mrs Clinton may argue that it is the price to pay to end an ever-more toxic primary campaign.
FIGURES NOT STACKING UP PRESSURE may grow on Mrs Clinton to make a graceful exit from the race. Her slim victory in Indiana may be enough to allow her to continue through the next round of primaries, but Tuesday's results and the maths make it difficult for her to win the nomination.
West Virginia holds a primary next Tuesday. Kentucky and Oregon vote a week later and Puerto Rico has one set for 1 June, followed by Montana and South Dakota on 3 June. The New York senator is favoured in Kentucky, West Virginia and Puerto Rico, while Mr Obama is favoured in Oregon, Montana and South Dakota.
Mrs Clinton had hoped a sweep of Tuesday's two contests would allow her to sow doubt about Mr Obama's electability and persuade some superdelegates – party insiders who are free to back any candidate at the nominating convention – to move towards her.
Race over, says former presidential candidate FORMER Senator George McGovern, a 1972 presidential candidate and a close friend of the Clintons, yesterday switched sides and urged the New York senator to withdraw from the race.
Democrats fear the long nomination fight will damage the party's chances at defeating Republican John McCain in the November general elections.
Mr McGovern's switch was largely symbolic since he is not a superdelegate – the group that will likely decide the nomination. But his defection was the second by a high profile Clinton backer in under two weeks. Last week, the former Democratic National Committee Chairman Joe Andrew – a superdelegate – switched allegiance to Mr Obama, despite having been named to the top party job by former President Bill Clinton.
Mr McGovern said he called in Mr Clinton to tell him of the decision, adding that he remains close friends with the Clintons.
"I will hold them in affection and admiration all of my days," he said.
Mr McGovern said he had no regrets about endorsing Hillary Clinton months ago, even before the Iowa caucuses."She has run a valiant campaign. And she will remain an influential voice in the American future," he said.
But Mr Obama has won the nomination "by any practical test" and is very close to a majority of the pledged delegates, said Mr McGovern, who is 85.
Last night, the Obama campaign dropped broad hints it was time for remaining unaligned superdelegates to take sides and settle the race.
"We think the Clinton camp has gotten away with a little bit of creating these alternative views of reality" about her chance at winning the nomination, said Mr Obama campaign manager David Plouffe.
ALL THE LATEST FROM THE US ELECTIONSThe full article contains 1132 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
