Is Hillary In Comeback Kid The Sequel

In a story I was just reading at Yahoo News it indicates that the polls have been moving back toward Hillary the last few days, and with her political future on the line in today's primaries in Ohio and Texas, Hillary Clinton is getting some last minute hope.

After winning 11 presidential nominating contests in a row, the campaign of Barack Obama has hit turbulence, as key political indicators show a possible momentum change in the race. Obama's campaign still portrays outward confidence about winning today, and says it's nearly impossible for Clinton to catch him in the delegate count. But Obama has not cemented a lead in polls in either of the biggest "Super Tuesday II" states, breaking his recent pattern of racing ahead of Clinton as a state's primary approached.

Internet rumors and maneuvering by the Clinton campaign on issues like trade and ethics have put Obama into a defensive stance -- just as Buckeye and Lone Star state voters are making their final decisions. During a "60 Minutes" interview with Obama, correspondent Steve Kroft said voters in southern Ohio were talking about the untrue rumor "that you're a Muslim." "You know, this has been a systematic e-mail smear campaign that's been going on since actually very early in this campaign," Obama said. "I have never been a Muslim, am not a Muslim.... It plays into, obviously, a certain fear-mongering there."

Lingering rumors, political positioning or just second-thoughts could be swaying momentum from Obama to Clinton. "In the last days, polls seem to be breaking toward Senator Clinton," said John McIntyre, president and co-founder of Real Clear Politics, a Web site that tracks polls and political news. "The lead in Ohio seems to be an expanding lead. In Texas, where five or six days ago Sen. Obama had a lead, she is now ahead in our average." The Real Clear Politics average of Ohio polls has Clinton ahead of Obama by 6 points on the eve of the primary. In Texas, the two were tied, with Clinton ahead by 0.3 percent. If the polls prove to be accurate, the change couldn't come at a more crucial time for Clinton. Democratic strategists say that if she doesn't win both the Ohio and Texas primaries, her chances of getting the party's nomination are close to zero.

Top party officials say that if Clinton loses both big contests, she should quit the race gracefully and quickly -- and believe she will. "If she wins both, they continue on," said Jennifer Palmieri, a Democratic strategist at the Center for America Progress, a liberal think tank. "If he wins both, they're probably done. The messy scenario will be if there's a split decision. I don't think she's going to win Ohio and wake up Wednesday morning and say, 'I'm dropping out.'" But it may be too soon to talk dropping out just yet. Indicators beyond poll data show a neck-and-neck race, with signs pointing in slightly different directions, depending on the information.

On the Yahoo! News Political Billboard, the Yahoo! Buzz Index -- which measures search activity -- is roughly three times as high for Obama as for Clinton. Obama's buzz started in roughly the same place at the beginning of the year, with him slightly ahead of Clinton. After a few peaks and drops, his index soared. Clinton's buzz increased slightly until Super Tuesday on Feb. 5, then flattened. But much of Obama's traffic is about topics he'd rather avoid. Yahoo! analyst Vera H-C Chan says people in Ohio and Texas are still scouting out rumors about Obama, as reflected in queries like "barack obama muslim," "obama's church," "obama antichrist," "barack obama muslim school," and the straightforward question, "is obama a christian or a muslim?"

Clinton's searches, on the other hand, have focused on her "biography" and "campaign," with some searches for her husband Bill and daughter Chelsea, both of whom have campaigned nearly non-stop in recent weeks.

Intrade, a Web-based predictions market that includes political trading, had been showing a strong trend toward Obama. But John Delaney, Intrade's founder and chief executive, said he's seen "a bounce back for Clinton." "He's favored but not guaranteed in Texas, but the momentum is clearly with him as is the longer trend," Delaney said. In Ohio, "the trading has been even up until today -- now Clinton has moved forward."

The two campaigns agree Clinton has a better chance in Ohio, where the rusty economy has produced a rich harvest of the lower income, blue-collar voters who have been her strength. In Texas, she expects to do well with Hispanics and in the rural areas in the south. Obama aims to clean up with African-Americans and big-city voters. Clinton's campaign hopes voters, like the late-deciding women who gave her an upset victory in the New Hampshire primary, will decide the race shouldn't be over yet.

Vermont and Rhode Island also vote today, but are so much smaller that they haven't received a lot of attention. Obama is expected to win a landslide in Vermont, which one Democratic operative calls "the capital of latte liberals" -- the highly educated, high-income Democrats who have flocked to his anti-Washington platform. Rhode Island should be strong for Clinton, although some polls have been tighter than she would have liked.

In the final frenetic days of campaigning, each camp pushed their platforms. Clinton's message has been: Democrats, if you're going to have buyer's remorse, have it now. Don't wait till the fall when we're running against John McCain. David Plouffe, Obama's campaign manager, declared confidently in a memo to reporters and supporters: "While the Clintons gamely continue to try to move the goal posts, at some point there has to be a reckoning. ... No amount of spin can change the math."

By tomorrow morning, we'll know who was bluffing! This should be an interesting night for everyone who loves politics~!!