Well, by God, she did it. Hillary Clinton took Texas, Ohio, and Rhode Island, leaving Vermont to Obama. The Texas primary outcome was 51% - 47% (the caucus portion of the evening went to Obama, by the by, 52% - 48%), Ohio was 54% - 44%, and Rhode Island was 58% - 40%. Vermont went for Obama at 60% - 38%. Hillary took two states by double-digits – a thing I would not have predicted, though I felt she’d win at least Ohio and Rhode Island. The chief nay-sayers’ point still rings true, however shimmering the moment may have been last night: the math is not good for her. She can’t get there from here.

But the same math is not, technically speaking, good for Obama, either. Neither of them can realistically “win” the nomination outright by earning 2,025 committed delegates. So yes, this raises the spectre of the superdelegate-driven, brokered convention outcome. To many party faithful, it is the ultimate scenario of doom. Likely to be featured in any such nightmare are the riled spirits of Florida and Michigan, though we have to presume an accommodation will be reached allowing for a revote after both candidates make their best case, before June. At the height of convention festivities in Denver, it is predicted by all pessimistic party-watchers that either Obama or Clinton supporters (depending on who is anointed as nominee by the superdelegates) will storm from the Colorado Convention Center as one, howling for blood.

But let’s take a deep breath. Inevitably, something far more prosaic is likely to unfold. In the coming weeks, our candidates will keep pummeling each other, perhaps unearthing new and hair-raising ways to do so. After Mississippi and Wyoming, there will come a surreal six weeks before Pennsylvania votes on April 22. It is an amazing span of time in the world of presidential primaries, and it will feel like a post-storm calm after all we’ve endured since January 3^rd in Iowa.

But within this peculiar space, each candidate will refine the campaign’s message. Enough is at stake that they will also be enduring more media exposure at a more intense and specific level. This will allow voters to glean things that may have been missed in the frenzy of the early states. There may actually be buyer’s remorse concerning Obama. There may be a mass wave of voters quailing at the thought of any more Clinton occupation of the White House, with the inevitable and insane reaction it would stir. We don’t know who will win or who will lose, who all these vagaries might favor, or who they might bring down. That is the point. It is a nomination process. And after last night, it is clear we are still in the midst of it.