I think there were two main reasons HRC came out on top.

[pnwmom]

First, there was a backlash in her favor -- as evidenced by DUers, here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=3983468&mesg_id=3983468

And I think there may have been some over-confidence in the Obama campaign, that was relying on a lot of new, young, and independent voters -- who are notoriously unreliable.

The HRC people probably fought like tigers in the last 48 hours; the Obama people might not have. Everyone "knew" they were going to win.

[AX10]

1. Young voters are extremly unreliable.

I would not count on them brining us to victory in November.
They are a part of the electorate, but they are not the center of it.

[...of J.Temperance]

5. Correct

The under 25's are the least reliable to get to the polls, which is something that has been happening for too many elections, and it's also something that we as a party really need to get serious about addressing....WHY the under 25's don't vote and how we can formulate something appealing to encourage them to participate in the electoral process.

[Captain Hilts]

2. Demographics of the two contests are very different. nt

[Purveyor]

3. Regardless. She will loose to any GOP opponent in the General. Done deal...

[FrenchieCat]

4. Yep. With Hillary as the Candidate, we can say......

Bu-Buy Independents!

[William769]

8. You mean the Independents that voted for Hillary and not Obama?

[pnwmom]

12. Maybe so, for independent men. But independent women love her.

In New York state she got 75% of the women's vote, many of them independents.

[William769]

7. You really crack me up!

:rofl:

[...of J.Temperance]

9. Senator Clinton would beat ANY of the GOP candidates in the GE

They're all borderline loony....their front-runners:

John McCain = too old, wants to put MORE troops into Iraq, wants to bomb Iran.

Mitt Romney = a Ken doll with nothing between his ears.

Mike Huckabee = Fundie loon, likens abortion to the Holocaust.

[pnwmom]

10. Why? I think she can take either the Gore states or the Kerry states --

then add one more from the midwest or west, and she's won.

[JDPriestly]

6. What is going on here? Didn't the polls show Hillary ahead by a wide margin some weeks ago?

Obama narrowed the gap between him and Hillary by many, many points. Look, I'm an Edwards supporter, and after Iowa, I felt just awful. A lot of the Obama people were really nasty and arrogant about Obama's win. And the press did not even credit Edwards for his second place. I know how you Obama supporters feel.

I wish Edwards had won this time and picked up a lot more votes. I think he is the best candidate. He held his own. New Hampshire is not his best state.

But, even though Hillary is viewed as the winner, I think that Obama was actually the winner in the sense that he made the most progress and gained an incredible amount of votes over a short period of time during the election.

This race is not over. It is a matter of getting more and more delegates, not winning states.

[DFW]

11. I'm less worried about the general

Look at our prospective opponents:

A guy in his 70s who embraced Bush in public and wants more armed conflict

A Mormon who doesn't know what he's for, except himself

A folksy preacher who talks to God on his cell phone in public

A former mayor whose claim to fame is being in the right place at the wrong time

Tell me that ANY Democratic nominee can't beat that roster, and I'll tell
you that I'm talking to a pessimist whose glass has never been half full.
It may not be who I want--in fact, that's practically guaranteed. However,
I will not be parroting any mantra claiming that any one of our top three
possibles will lose us the election. I refuse to swallow that one.

[frazzled]

13. I think it is because people did really not want to see her drop out

I am an Obama supporter (though I would not care a whole lot if Hillary gets the nomination; I like her (enough) too), and I felt that way myself. I did not want to see this thing locked up after 2 states, I did not want to see her curtail her campaign early.

Now Edwards is the spoiler. This is clearly an Obama-Clinton race. The JohnMentum is nowhere, and he only serves to distract (I hated that he played attack dog on Hillary on the Saturday night debate, to suck up to Obama and keep from going down the drain himself. I think he thought it would hurt her so he could be in a two-way race, but it only helped her. Fine. I am happy with either Obama or Hillary.