After subsiding a bit early this week, the drumbeat continued, in drips and drabs, that the end may well be within sight of Hillary Rodham Clinton’s once-supposedly-unstoppable presidential bid.

The pundits continue to pile on, parsing the significance of such disparate news items as Vermont Sen. (and Barack Obama backer) Pat Leahy saying Friday she should get out of the race to Sen. Chris Dodd’s (also with Obama) saying much the same just the day before.

Then came new poll data showing that Obama has regained his national lead over Clinton and that her negative ratings had returned to as high as they were seven years ago.

On and on it went, with Slate Magazine topping the exercise with “The Hillary Deathwatch,” a feature that will be regulary updated with the current odds of her winning the Democratic nomination. As of Friday, the odds stood at 12 percent.

Amid all this (and much more piling on), Clinton’s campaign sent out a letter Friday to fundraisers that read, in part: “Have you noticed a pattern?

“Every time our campaign demonstrates its strength and resilience, people start to suggest we should end our pursuit of the Democratic nomination.

“Those anxious to force us to the sidelines aren’t doing it because they think we’re going to lose the upcoming primaries. The fact is, they’re reading the same polls we are, and they know we are in a position to win … we aren’t going to simply step aside. You and I are going to keep fighting for what we believe in, and together, we’re going to win.”

This entry was posted on Friday, March 28th, 2008 at 4:42 pm and is filed under Barack Obama, Democrats, Hillary Rodham Clinton, Presidential. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.