Reading Dana Milibank’s “Teetering on the border” brings to mind some of the best lines from a visionary Irish poet, whose poem could be said to epitomize the scenario that Milibank draws in his article: “Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold”.

The last but one paragraph to the article is particularly striking in its sequences:

<<<It was a brief speech but insufficiently inspiring. After she got to the part about health care (“I’m not going to leave anyone out; Senator Obama leaves out at least 15 million”), the mariachi band walked off the arena floor in single file and headed for the exit. After she passed the part about “alternative renewable energy” and announced her pleasure at having “the endorsement of the United Farmworkers Union,” there was a steady flow of people from the arena floor and out the exit below Section 120.>>>

Yet, the last sentence that closes the article is quite revealing in what it purports to say of the campaign:

“There’s nothing wrong with America that cannot be fixed once we have new leadership,” Clinton called after them. “I will work my heart out for you and your families.”

A frank yet desperate cry that will hardly fail to move the heart of any, except for the most hardened. The end, however, was in sight, the article seems to say, “the falcon could no longer hear the falconer”.

Is the article too early an epitaph on the Clinton campaign? Definitely, yes. Hillary is a tough and passionate fighter capable of bringing herself together, galvanizing her long standing connections in Texas and Ohio, the women and blue collar workers and staging a come back.

“If she wins in Texas and Ohio, I think she’ll be the nominee,” former President Clinton said Wednesday in the course of a speech to Hillary’s supporters in the town of Beaumont, Texas. “If you don’t deliver for her, I don’t think she can be.”

Given the strength of her campaign team in Texas particularly, it is too early to rule out a turnabout victory as in New Hampshire last January.

In the end, however, the ultimate selection of the candidate to be nominated lies in the hands of superdelegates, of which her husband is one. So all is not lost: the center hasn’t fallen apart completely.

“Unlike pledged delegates won through a primary or a caucus, superdelegates can vote for whomever they choose, and they are not beholden to vote for the candidate they endorse”, Tom Raum (AP) reports.

“I don’t think it’s going to come down to the president’s vote, but as he has said many times, he would be supporting her even if they weren’t married,” The AP reports Clinton spokesman Matt McKenna as saying in a written statement

Teetering On the Border
By Dana Milbank, Washington Post
Thursday, February 21, 2008; Page A02