As of 1:00am, Hillary Clinton has won in both Ohio and Rhode Island and is holding a small lead in Texas, thus likely decimating my near-perfect prediction record.  You have to give her credit.  Who else could have lost 11 straight contests over a span of four weeks– never coming closer than 15 points in any of them– only to come back and win landslides in two out of four states?

With tonight’s results, she’ll get about 15 to 20 delegates closer to Barack Obama, but that will still leave her behind by about 100.  To give you an idea of how convoluted the delegate math is and how daunting (read: impossible) Clinton’s task is from here on out: As of right now, even with the leads she holds in three of four states, she’s still behind Obama in tonight’s overall delegate count.  And according to Tom Brokaw, Obama is holding 50 undeclared superdelegates in his back pocket.  Look for him to release the hounds later this week and instantly erase whatever delegate progress Clinton made tonight.  Also, look for some big names in the Democratic Party (think Edwards, Pelosi, Richardson, etc.) to either start grumbling for Clinton to step aside or outright endorsing Obama.  Either way, Clinton’s surprisingly strong showing tonight means that in all likelihood the Democrats have successfully delayed the selection of their nominee for another seven weeks– until the April 22nd Pennsylvania primary.

Meaning the big winner tonight is the Republican Party.  On the other side of the aisle tonight, John McCain clinched the Republican nomination and Mike Huckabee bowed out of the race.  Tomorrow morning, McCain will accept the endorsement of President Bush, the Republicans will rally around their nominee, and they’ll begin the process of officially building organizations and resources in key battleground states.  While the Democrats spend another two months forestalling the near inevitable, the Republicans will be taking a large head start in a race where they desperately need it.

But besides having the effect of dragging out the race for her party, Clinton’s win tonight means one more thing: seven more weeks of attacks and hardball tactics against the eventual Democratic nominee, whoever that will be.  Seven more weeks of throwing negative stories and underground smear campaigns against the wall to see what sticks, making the Republicans’ job that much easier in November.  How many more Obama-Rezko stories will be written over the next seven weeks, now that the trial is in full swing?  How many stories will come out of Clinton’s recently released White House records and soon to be released tax returns, both of which she has been furiously guarding for as long as possible?  One way or another, the Democratic nominee is going to be a lot dirtier and a lot less popular on April 22nd than they are tonight.

Is it possible that a Democratic Party that has every imaginable advantage going into the general election, nearly every hot-button issue on their side– from the unpopular Iraq War to the flagging economy to the broken health care system– is once again finding a way to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory?  Is it possible that the historic race we’re watching is actually a historic cautionary tale in the making?  Is it possible that this Web site’s name, Train Wreck Politics, is more prophetic than any of us could have known?

Stay tuned, kids.  Just seven more weeks until the Democrats find a way to go on for seven more weeks.