Clinton facing narrower path to nomination

She needs to lead in the total popular vote after the primaries end in June.

And Clinton is looking for some development to shake confidence in Obama so that superdelegates, Democratic Party leaders and elected officials who are free to decide which candidate to support overturn his lead among the pledged delegates from primaries and caucuses.

For Clinton, all this has seemed something of a long shot since her defeats in February. But that shot seems to have grown a little longer.

Despite Clinton8217;s last-minute trip to Michigan on Wednesday, Democrats there signaled that they are unlikely to hold a new primary. That apparently dashed Clinton8217;s hopes of a new showdown in a state she feels she could win, and it left the state8217;s delegates in limbo.

The inaction in Michigan followed a similar collapse of her effort to seek another matchup with Obama in Florida, where, as in Michigan, she won an earlier primary held in violation of party rules.

Without new votes in Florida and Michigan, it will be that much more difficult for Clinton to achieve a majority in the total popular vote in the primary season, narrow Obama8217;s lead among pledged delegates or build a new wave of momentum.

Clinton8217;s advisers had hoped that the uproar over inflammatory remarks made by Obama8217;s longtime pastor that has rocked his campaign for a week might lead voters and superdelegates to question whether they really know enough about Obama to back him. Although it is still early to judge his success, the speech Obama delivered on race in Philadelphia to address the controversy was well received and praised even by some Clinton supporters.

Tad Devine, a Democratic consultant who is not supporting a candidate, said Clinton faced a challenge that although hardly insurmountable was growing tougher almost by the day. Devine said it was critical for her to come out ahead in popular votes, cut into Obama8217;s lead and raise questions about Obama8217;s electability to win over superdelegates.

8220;They are going to have to be flawless in executing the strategy, which achieves the goal of taking away the advantage Obama has in pledged delegates and the popular vote,8221; he added. 8220;Any major setback could undercut that goal. Obama is in the advantageous position.8221;

The race is certainly not over. With 10 contests remaining, Clinton trails Obama by about 150 delegates out of the 2,025 needed to secure the nomination.

If there is a road to victory for Clinton, it is a fairly narrow one. Her chief strategist, Mark Penn, said the campaign believed that when the primary voting was done, Clinton would have a lead in the overall popular vote, that Obama8217;s lead in delegates would be relatively narrow and that polls would show her in a stronger position than Obama.

Victories in contests where she is strong or competitive like Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Puerto Rico and, perhaps, Oregon and Indiana could give her a burst of energy.

No less important, the campaign hopes that Obama will have been battered by five rough weeks that raise questions about his past, including the pastor8217;s incendiary comments, that would underscore Clinton8217;s warning to Democrats that they were rallying around someone who was untested and unvetted.