A Wisconsin observer says Hillary Clinton has diminished options in her bid for the White House. She narrowly squeaked past Barack Obama in the Hoosier state, and UW Madison political scientist Charles Franklin says that has to be seen as a major disappointment for the Clinton campaign. “The best estimate we had of Indiana was for Clinton to win it by four to five percent, maybe six percent,” says Franklin. “So for her to win by just barely one percent was surprisingly close.”
The margin in Indiana was only about 20 thousand votes, and Obama won a convicting victory in South Carolina, making hash of Clinton's argument that the Illinois Senator can't win the big ones. “Her problem now is that she can't make that sound convicting after last night,” Franklin says. “Her only possible way to win was to convince the superdelegates that Obama really wasn't as strong a candidate as he looked early in the campaign.” Still, Franklin expects Clinton to tough it out at least until next Tuesday's Oregon primary, and probably into early June as well.