Below The Beltway

Last night was, essentially, Hillary Clinton’s last chance to take on Barack Obama one-on-one. Barring something entirely unexpected, she will lose in Texas and, possibly, Ohio and will be forced from the race. But last night was her once chance to turn the trend around, and she didn’t do it:

CLEVELAND, Feb. 26 — In their final debate before critical primaries in Ohio and Texas, Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton clashed sharply on familiar ground, arguing Tuesday night over who has the better health-care plan, who has been right about Iraq and who would move most aggressively to rethink trade policy as president

In contrast to their debate five days ago in Texas, Clinton and Obama butted heads from the opening moments, starting with a clash over whether the senator from Illinois had mischaracterized her plan for universal health care in his campaign mailings, and continuing throughout the 90-minute session.

“We should have a good debate that uses accurate information, not false, misleading and discredited information, especially on something as important as whether or not we will achieve quality, affordable health care for everyone,” said Clinton (N.Y.).

Obama pushed back with equal aggressiveness. “Senator Clinton has, in her campaign at least, has constantly sent out negative attacks on us, e-mail, robo-calls [prerecorded telephone messages], fliers, television ads, radio calls, and we haven’t whined about it, because I understand that’s the nature of this campaign,” he said

There were no game-changing moments in the debate, but there was more than one indication that Clinton is clearly frustrated with the state of the race:

Clinton’s frustration with her political situation flashed through early on, when she noted that she seemed to always get the first questions in these debates and made a reference to a “Saturday Night Live” skit aired last weekend that mocked reporters for fawning over Obama. “Maybe we should ask Barack if he’s comfortable and needs a pillow,” she said.

At that moment, I was personally convinced that the race was over. When you have to resort to a lame skit on a television show that hasn’t been funny in twenty years, your campaign is officially running on empty.

Clinton needed to change the course of the race last night, and she clearly didn’t. She may have stopped the slide in Ohio to some degree, but the game will continue to play out much as it has since New Hampshire.