Watching the returns from Ohio and Texas and looking back at the arc of this campaign brings to mind one of my favorite sports moments — the epic battle between golfers Jack Nicklaus and Tom Watson at the 1977 British Open at Turnberry. (Bear with me.)

The major championship had come down to a duel between Nicklaus and Watson in the final round. Watson, trailing earlier, had scratched his way back into a tie with Nicklaus by the time they reached the 16th tee.

As recounted in the book “And Then Jack Said to Arnie…”, as they stood on the tee box, Watson turned to Nicklaus and said, “This is what it’s all about, isn’t it?”

And then Nicklaus, smiling, said, “You bet it is.”

In the end, Watson won with a birdie on the 18th hole, and afterward, Nicklaus offered this praise: “I threw my best at him. I gave him everything I had. I just couldn’t shake him.”

The Democratic nominating contest has that same air about it — two candidates engaged in a monumental struggle for supremacy, each throwing their best at the other.

Tuesday’s result isn’t about the delegates. When the final delegate tally is reported from the Texas caucuses, Obama’s overall delegate lead may still hold up.

But at least for now it’s all about Ohio and the economy, stupid.

By prevailing on this dominant issue in a must-win state (must-win now and in November), Clinton has made her strongest case yet for being the Democratic nominee. And, it gives her an advantage heading into the Pennsylvania primary — another Rust Belt state with a Democratic governor who is supporting her, just like in Ohio.

Clinton tried to look every bit the nominee — with confetti accenting her victory speech appearance — but this contest still has a long way to go. Maybe all the way to Denver.

The intriguing things about that possibility are:

– The superdelegates. Early on the old-guard type superdelegates were breaking for Clinton, and Obama supporters expressed outrage at the possibility that those delegates could tip the balance to Clinton, over the expressed wishes of the primary and caucus voters.

But more recently, Obama has been winning the fight for superdelegates. It happened in Minnesota on Friday, when the DFL Party chair and associate chair abandoned their neutral stance and backed Obama.

Now, with Clinton reborn, will she again prevail among the remaining undecided superdelegates?

– Florida and Michigan. The Democratic Party stripped both states of all their convention delegates for jumping ahead in the primary calendar. Clinton won both states, but there was no campaigning and they weren’t fair contests.

At a brokered convention, Clinton no doubt would insist on seating those delegations. But surely the party would have to remain firm. By seating those delegations, the party would go from saying the states would have absolutely no role in picking a nominee to giving them the decisive roles.

And now, a final observation.

In their speeches last night, Clinton and Obama each related a tale about a touching letter or donation they had received.

– Clinton’s story: Young mom, with girls ages 2 and 4 sends Clinton $10 and a note saying she and the girls and cheering and rooting for her, and “I want them to know anything is possibile.”

– Obama’s story: Elderly woman sends him a money order for $3.01 — one cent! — with a “simple verse of Scripture tucked inside” the envelope.

He may have lost three states Tuesday, but Obama won the competition for best tale of poor-donor-searching-for-loose-change-among-the-couch-cushions-to-scrape-together-enough-for-a-contribution.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 5th, 2008 at 1:33 am and is filed under Barack Obama, Hillary Rodham Clinton, Presidential Democratic, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.