(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-05-12 09:53

She said merely, but pointedly: "You don't choose your family, but you get to choose your pastor."

After Obama told California fat cats about bitter small-town Americans who clung to their guns and Bible, Clinton saw a chance to become ever more the populist, and went for it with gusto.

In Indiana and North Carolina, she won the votes of two-thirds of whites without a college education, exit polls found.

Special coverage: 2008 US Presidential Election Related readings:  Obama overtakes Clinton in superdelegate endorsements  Obama and Clinton may join forces in election  Obama open to Clinton as possible running mate  Clinton under greater pressure to quit nomination race  Obama wins N.C. primary, Clinton wins Indiana

In the bizarre calculus of choosing a Democratic presidential nominee, expectations remained paramount deep into the race, even though hard delegate totals give a candidate the prize.

In part, that's because this nomination is close enough that it can only be clinched by the party figures known as superdelegates, who sit out the contests and decide on their own time who's most likely to beat Republican John McCain in the fall.

Through all of Obama's trials, they continued drifting his way, slowly but inexorably. Bill Clinton hectored some of them, to no avail.

Still, Hillary Clinton survived, as long as she exceeded expectations.

At first she was expected to win big in Pennsylvania. Then she appeared to lose most or all of her advantage. So her eventual win there, just short of 10 points, was a bit more than expected.

That all changed in Indiana and North Carolina.

By then, Obama was the one seen struggling, still wrestling with the Wright fallout and his broader problem with some whites.

And so expectations rose for Clinton to win Indiana handily and close in on Obama in North Carolina.

It didn't happen.

In a twisted way, the Wright matter may have been the worst thing that could have happened to Hillary Clinton.

   1 2 3 4 5   

   1 2 3 4 5