West Virginia, Mountain Mama

Senator Hillary Clinton is using her lopsided victory in West Virginia to revive her ailing campaign. Now she is emboldened and vowing to continue until the bitter end. "You will never quit, and I won't either," she told a cheering group of supporters in West Virginia. Yet even Senator Clinton's staunchest defenders agree that her triumph in that state does not improve her chances for securing the nomination. As the Wall Street Journal editorialized: "Hillary Clinton trounced Barack Obama in West Virginia's Democratic presidential primary, as expected. But her negligible payback in convention delegates illustrates why her rival and her party are turning away from her candidacy to begin the fight against Republican John McCain."

Even Old Bubba (a.k.a., Bill Clinton) appeared in West Virginia, despite having a terrible head cold. Standing on the bed of a red pickup truck during a rainstorm, he turned up the charm in front of a crowd of 2,000 at a community college in the mountainous state. Bill thundered into the microphone, "With 54 percent of the vote in in West Virginia, Hillary has 125,000 votes, her opponent has 53,000. We are winning West Virginia by somewhere between 33 and 35 points. It is a great night."

Now the pundits are saying that Senator Barack Obama has to make more of an effort to reach out to blue-collar voters in the aftermath of Clinton's West Virginia victory. If you ask me, that is never bad advice.

Meantime, in the New York Times, Senator George McGovern proposed a truce between Obama and Clinton: No more name calling, no more criticism, no more attacks. An even better idea would be for Senator Clinton to gracefully make her exit. 'Cause from where I'm sitting, it looks like Hillary's old dog don't hunt.