John McCain clinched the GOP nomination with wins in Texas and Ohio yesterday. Mike Huckabee conceded that he was beaten following his mathematical elimination from the contest. That was no surprise to anyone paying attention to the dynamics of that race.

On the other hand, Hillary Clinton turned the Democrat race for the White House upside down with her victories in both of the big jewels in yesterday's primaries, Texas and Ohio.

Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton defeated Senator Barack Obama in Ohio and Texas on Tuesday, ending a string of defeats and allowing her to soldier on in a Democratic presidential nomination race that now seems unlikely to end any time soon.

Mrs. Clinton also won Rhode Island, while Mr. Obama won in Vermont. But the results mean that Mrs. Clinton won the two states she most needed to keep her candidacy alive.

Her victory in Texas was razor thin and came only after most Americans had gone to bed. But by winning decisively in Ohio earlier in the evening, Mrs. Clinton was able to deliver a televised victory speech in time for the late-night news. And the result there allowed her to cast Tuesday as the beginning of a comeback even though she stood a good chance of gaining no ground against Mr. Obama in the hunt for delegates.

“No candidate in recent history — Democratic or Republican — has won the White House without winning the Ohio primary,” Mrs. Clinton, of New York, said at a rally in Columbus, Ohio. “We all know that if we want a Democratic president, we need a Democratic nominee who can win Democratic states just like Ohio.”

On the Republican side, Senator John McCain swept to victory in Ohio, Rhode Island, Texas and Vermont and claimed his party’s nomination, capping a remarkable comeback in his second bid for the presidency.

Mr. McCain’s main remaining rival, Mike Huckabee, a former governor of Arkansas, announced he was dropping out minutes after the polls closed and pledged his cooperation to Mr. McCain. Aides to Mr. McCain said he would head Wednesday morning to Washington to go to the White House and accept the endorsement of President Bush, his one-time foe, and begin gathering his party around him.

Let's be clear about what this means -- Barack Obama just saw his cake walk to the nomination ended. Hillary CLinton now has a very realistic possibility of surviving all the way through to the Democrat convention, which is quite likely to be brokered. There is absolutely no telling what that will mean -- however, I'd have to say the institutional support the Clintons have makes it more likely that she will win the nomination through the decisions of the super delegates.

Expect increasingly bitter rhetoric from both Obama and Clinton over teh next few weeks -- and expect the eventual nominee to emerge from the process bloodied and an easier target for John McCain and the Republicans.