Clinton wins Pa., status quo intact

But comes far short of thew massive blowout she needed.

Here are the numbers, as of 1 a.m.

99% precincts reporting.

Vote% Dels
Clinton 54.7 52
Obama 45.2 46

So this changes very little.

Let's resurrect that Kos quote from yesterday:

Note that after Super Tuesday, SUSA gave Clinton a 19-point lead, while Rasmussen gave her a 15-point lead. That was her baseline.

So despite the media flap over Wright and the "bitter" comments and a nationally televised wreck of a debate, Obama still cut into her numbers significantly.

But it is still a win, even if it was cut down to slightly under 10 percent.

Sam Seder's take:

"We are where we were six weeks ago except there are a lot less pledged delegates in play, Obama has gained nearly 50 superdelgates and Clinton has now vetted our Democratic Nominee."

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From tomorrow's N.Y. Times, (who endorsed Clinton earlier this year):

Mrs. Clinton did not get the big win in Pennsylvania that she needed to challenge the calculus of the Democratic race. It is true that Senator Barack Obama outspent her 2-to-1. But Mrs. Clinton and her advisers should mainly blame themselves, because, as the political operatives say, they went heavily negative and ended up squandering a good part of what was once a 20-point lead.

She's still behind in the popular vote by 800,000, behind in states won, behind in pledged delgates and her superdelegate lead has nearly evaporated. The Obama campaign is planning to announce a new batch of superdelgte endorsements leading up to the N.C. primary that may well erase that lead.

Before, Pa. Clinton had to win all of the remaining contests by at least 62% to break even with Obama in delgates. That was nearly impossible then and now without having reached that mark in Pa., the last large state considered a likely win for her, the bar is raised even higher.

The Times editorial called for Clinton to end her negative tactics.

Highly unlikely.

With the math against her, she has two options:
1. Drive up Obama's negatives until she can convince the superdelegates that he's unelectable (though she overlooks the fact that she's lost a large majority of primaries to him).

2. Stay in the race and damage his fall chances to set herself up for another run in 2012 (as many including myself, suspect is the ultimate plan).

Either way, it's going to get ugly at the convention.

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The only option out is if Democratic leaders exercise the plan they've hinted at earlier and pressure enough superdelegates to announce their support now to to end this mess.

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Coming up: N.C. and Indiana in two weeks. Obama leads in N.C. by a large amount and the most recent poll had him up slightly in Indiana.

Some commentators expect victories in both would end the battle. But I doubt it.

The Clintons aren't going quietly and if it means destroying the Dems' chances for a historic, transformative election a la 1932, they're fine with that.

Somewhere, John McCain is a very happy man right now.

Photo: AP