Winning Late: Can West Virginia Change Democratic Race?

Check out the Economist's take on Hillary Clinton's big win in West Virginia this week:

IN LOGAN, the local high school's cheerleaders wrote a chant for Hillary Clinton's visit on May 12th: “H-I-L-L-A-R-Y, Hillary, our nominee!” In Fairmont, her supporters printed T-shirts reading, “We Need A Mama, Not Obama”. And on May 13th Mrs Clinton won West Virginia's Democratic primary by a whopping 41 points, almost the largest margin of her candidacy so far. For Mrs Clinton, the state is “almost heaven”, she said, quoting John Denver's “Country Roads” to a raucous crowd of supporters.

The state's profile is, indeed, perfect for Mrs Clinton: West Virginia's Democrats are relatively poor, undereducated, ageing and overwhelmingly white. With one of the highest number of veterans per head in the country, the state takes displays of patriotism—such as flag pins—very seriously. Barack Obama visited the state only once, and when he did he admitted he was likely to lose.

Although Mrs Clinton's head is in Appalachia's heavenly peaks, only a miracle can save her candidacy now. On May 14th John Edwards, who ran a respectable third in the Democratic stakes thanks to his appeal to white working-class voters, endorsed Mr Obama. Mr Obama has just taken the lead even in superdelegate endorsements, the last meaningful measure to favour Mrs Clinton. And despite her thumping victory in West Virginia and her likely win in Kentucky on May 20th, Mr Obama will finish the primary season with more delegates and more votes than Mrs Clinton. In Washington, regardless of both successes, the debate is still all about not whether she will concede but when, and how.

So, that's it, only a miracle can save her?

Not everyone thinks so:

"It's not over! It's not over!" The chant echoed through the Charleston Civic Center last night as defiant Hillary Clinton supporters urged their candidate to keep on fighting. The almost all-white crowd included a disproportionately large number of elderly women. The sparsely decorated main hall of the civic center—the barren walls made it all too obvious that Clinton's campaign is desperately low on funds—didn't matter, because the crowd kept things festive. Teenage girls wore homemade T-shirts saying "Hillary's Tag Team." A young man standing behind the podium where Clinton delivered her victory speech steadily punched an invisible opponent with red boxing gloves. A group of union members launched into a booming "Madame President" singsong.

More than a dozen Clinton supporters interviewed by NEWSWEEK said they believe Clinton can still win, and many faulted a biased media for prematurely writing her off.

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