The worst week of Hillary's political career

Three more crushing defeats in Tuesday's Potomac Primary bring an end to what surely must be regarded as the worst week in Hillary Clinton's politcal career.

Defeat to Obama on Super Tuesday was followed the next day by the news that she had loaned her campaign $5 million of her own money and that some senior staffers had temporariliy gone without pay. The weekend brought heavy defeats in Washington state, Louisiana, Maine, Nebraska and the US Virgin Islands and Monday saw the New York Times reporting unease amongst her donors and superdelegates that the nomination was slipping away.

Tuesday saw more losses in the District of Columbia, Virginia and Maryland, meaning the former First Lady has now lost all eight contests held since Super Tuesday, hardly a backdrop conducive to raising money and courting superdelegates.

Losing all eight contests will not in itself have surprised the Clinton campaign. The caucus process (used in Maine, Nebraska and Washington state) greatly favours candidates like Obama who have large bodies of energetic and enthusiastic volunteers on the ground, something Mrs Clinton lacked in those states, whilst the five contests that were primaries were held in states, districts and territories with large African-American populations (Louisiana, Maryland, Virginia, DC and the US Virgin Islands).

More worrying will be the margin of the defeats (ranging from 51% in DC to 22% in Louisiana) and the exit polling showing Obama eating into her lead amongst key demographic groups. The CNN exit poll for Virginia showed Obama defeating Clinton among white voters 52% to 47% - only the third time time he has managed to win the white vote in a primary outside of his home state Illinois (he has also won amongst white voters in New Mexico and Utah). Obama has previously been competitive amongst white males, and won that demographic in several primaries on Super Tuesday. He now appears to be increasingly competitive amongst white females, previously a bastion of support for Mrs Clinton, with Obama winning 47% of those voters in Virginia, his third best figures for this group in a primary outside Illinois (behind New Mexico and Utah).

Obama has now won more states, more pledged delegates and more votes. He is raising more money and leads the total delegate count. The Clinton camapaign is confident of doing well in Texas and Ohio on March 4th but with two more Obama friendly contests (Wisconsin and Hawaii) taking place next week, Mrs Clinton may find that things are going to get even worse before they have a chance to get better.