Next Time, She Should Bring Her Kyptonite.

As I noted, Sen. Clinton's attempt to upset Sen. Obama's momentum failed. John Dickerson gives us an idea as to why:

Obama was an elusive target all night, diffusing each of Clinton's attempts to make pointed contrasts. When she repeated her claim about the limited power of his oratory, Obama went beyond his standard retort that words are important because they can inspire, and he added his own anti-rhetoric riff. He described talking with four Ohio women who struggle to find adequate health care and got indignant on their behalf. "I am not interested in talk," he said, promising to enact policies that will help them. "I am not interested in speeches." The answer touched a lot of bases. He pandered to the local crowd by talking about some of their own, showed his empathy for women, a group he consistently loses to Clinton, and demonstrated he would fight for regular folk on issues that matter to them, something he wants to show low-income voters who have preferred his opponent in some contests...

[snip]

...When Obama couldn't flip an answer back on his opponent, he just gave in. Asked about Louis Farrakhan's support, Obama said that he had denounced Farrakhan and his anti-Semitic views in the past, but he wouldn't answer Tim Russert's question about whether he would renounce Farrakhan's endorsement now. Clinton tried to make something of the distinction, pointing out that when an anti-Semitic group supported her 2000 campaign, she renounced it. Obama gave in. "If the word reject Sen. Clinton feels is stronger than the word denounce, then I'm happy to concede the point," he said. "I would reject and denounce."

Nothing Clinton threw at Obama would stick; her chance at creating a "Where's the Beef" Moment has for all intents and purposes passed her by (at least that's the impression I get from this Texas poll). Her campaign's strategy was to play it safe, concentrate on just the key states and endoresments, and hope that Obama would trip over himself.

Meanwhile: Obama has endured the Latino Voter Myth, critical members of the Old Civil Rights Guard (and their apparent heirs), racist snipes both subtle and overt, and the argument that he's substance-free.

Remember when Rachel Maddow broke down the three variations of "change" that John Edwards, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama were advocating? Well, the polls seem to indicate that people are making their choice on what type of change they want...and unless Clinton has Kryptonite, she's going to have a rough day on 3/4/08.