Hillary on the brink

Sen. Hillary Clinton stepped to the microphone on Wednesday and congratulated Barack Obama for his primary wins the day before.

She's getting good at that, having now lost 10 states in a row to the Illinois senator. But she couldn't resist a few digs, of course.

"It's time that we move from good words to good works, from sound bites to sound solutions," she said to a throng of fans at New York's Hunter College. "This campaign goes on!"

Would it be piling on to point out that "from sound bites to sound solutions" is, of course, itself a sound bite?

Then there was another pointed shot at her rival for the Democratic presidential nomination: "Others might be joining a movement. I'm joining you on the night shift, on the day shift," she said to applause and cheers.

By now, though, reality has certainly smacked Sen. Clinton upside the head. Sen Obama is the clear front-runner. If she falters in Texas or Ohio -- those primaries are on March 4 -- she's gone from inevitable to impossible.

Many wrote off Sen. Clinton after her loss in Iowa -- and she bounced back in New Hampshire. But there's less time now, and her rhetoric and demeanor seem slightly more desperate (although there haven't been any public tears recently).

Sen. Clinton will have two more chances to debate Sen. Obama in the coming days, once in Texas and once in Ohio. These could prove to be defining moments for her political aspirations.