However, it may not be enough, given that she won by only 41 points, and the media had written off a Clinton victory in the state even before the first vote was cast.

Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton won a lopsided victory on Tuesday over Senator Barack Obama in the West Virginia primary, where racial considerations emerged as an unusually salient factor. Mrs. Clinton drew strong support from white, working-class voters, who have spurned Mr. Obama in recent contests.

The number of white Democratic voters who said race had influenced their choices on Tuesday was among the highest recorded in voter surveys in the nomination fight. Two in 10 white West Virginia voters said race was an important factor in their votes. More than 8 in 10 who said it factored in their votes backed Mrs. Clinton, according to exit polls.

I guess I'm struck by the double standard on race that exists in this country. COnsider the much-cited statistics on white voters and race. I'd love to see polling data on the percentage of black voters who said that race was an important factor in their votes -- and the percentage of those black voters who cast a ballot for Barack Obama. I suppose, though, that my asking the question (or even thinking about it) makes me a sheet-wearing Kluxer in the eyes of the Obama campaign, which has gone from being "not about race" to being "all about race" in the last two months -- and in the eyes of the media that has decreed whites who don't vote for or who question Barack Obama as being irredeemably racist.

Then again, this is West Virginia -- consider who the past of their senior senator.

But the Times does note the potential difficulty that Obama's weakness among blue-collar white voters creates for the Democrats.

With Mr. Obama solidly ahead of Mrs. Clinton in the delegate fight, the West Virginia results are unlikely to hurt Mr. Obama’s chances of winning the nomination. A strong Clinton victory in another general election battleground state like her victories in Ohio and Pennsylvania could raise fresh questions about Mr. Obama’s ability to carry swing states in a contest against Senator John McCain.

In other words, the election may be much closer than those proclaiming Obama's election a lock are willing to recognize.