WP: Teetering on the Border
By Dana Milbank
Thursday, February 21, 2008; A02
HIDALGO, Tex. Hillary Clinton, drubbed by Barack Obama in 10 straight votes, flew down to this dusty border town on Wednesday to make her last stand for the Democratic presidential nomination. But where was the cavalry? On Tuesday night, Obama had packed in a capacity crowd of more than 18,000 at the Toyota Center in Houston, home of the National Basketball Association's Houston Rockets. But when Clinton emerged to speak at the 6,800-seat Dodge Arena here -- home of a minor-league hockey team -- rows and rows of empty blue seats awaited....She ended up in this outpost on the Rio Grande with a view of the Mexican town of Reynosa. For a candidate who has lost 10 contests in a row to Barack Obama and is fast becoming the Mike Huckabee of the Democratic Party, she must have felt tempted to slip across the bridge and into Mexico, a fugitive from a coronation gone awry....
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Clinton has gambled it all on wins on March 4 in Ohio and here in Texas. Though Clinton advisers, in a conference call with reporters Wednesday morning, spoke gamely of the Puerto Rico primary in June, they know that a loss in either Ohio or Texas would effectively end Clinton's candidacy. That means she could be down to her final two weeks as a viable presidential candidate....The Clinton campaign had spoken about a major rally here in south Texas, a display of the voting power of Latinos who would revive her campaign. There were indeed thousands of people here, many of them Latinos, but not enough to fill sections 107, 108, 113, 118, 119, 120 and 121. A big Texas flag concealed the empty seats of one whole section, and vast patches of the arena floor went unoccupied.
The musicians, their instruments checked for weapons by the Secret Service, put on their performances. Rep. Ruben Hinojosa, the local congressman, tried to fire up the crowd. "Early Start and Head Start are going to be increased!" he promised. Modest applause. Henry Cisneros, a Cabinet officer in Bill Clinton's administration, took a turn next. "This is not a game!" he said, his voice breaking. "This is about the future of our country!" More modest applause. Clinton delivered her usual stump speech, and the audience applauded in all the right places. "Tested, proven, effective -- that's what we need in our next president." Applause. "Do you believe that we will take back our country?" Affirmative applause.
It was a brief speech but insufficiently inspiring. After she got to the part about health care ("I'm not going to leave anyone out; Senator Obama leaves out at least 15 million"), the mariachi band walked off the arena floor in single file and headed for the exit. After she passed the part about "alternative renewable energy" and announced her pleasure at having "the endorsement of the United Farmworkers Union," there was a steady flow of people from the arena floor and out the exit below Section 120.
"There's nothing wrong with America that cannot be fixed once we have new leadership," Clinton called after them. "I will work my heart out for you and your families."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/20/AR2008022002933_pf.html