A three- to five-point cushion for His Holiness, suddenly evaporating? Get my hopes up, why don’t you. No worries. It’s just my heart.

“One thing we’re hearing that we really didn’t expect is people going and voting in the Democratic primary for Hillary Clinton,” Markum said. “They come up to me and they say McCain can beat Hillary, but he can’t beat Obama. It’s fueled by guys like Rush Limbaugh, by Ann Coulter [Ann Coulter? — ed.], who’re telling them to keep Hillary in this race, and that trickles down to Republicans going into those voting booths who can’t vote in our election. These were some voters we were counting on, so that’s thrown a bit of a kink in our extrapolations.”

Mind you, I heard the same thing in Wisconsin, where Republican crossover voters went 72-28 for Obama over Clinton. If the numbers diverge more than 5 or 10 points in Texas, I’d be pretty shocked. But it might be a function of Republicans becoming less a’feared of Clinton because of Obama’s wins.

She leads in two of the last three polls and trails by a solitary point in the other. This thing is winnable, baby. All we have to do is want it enough. Exit question: Can the GOP rescue Hillary Clinton from all but certain defeat? Si se puede!

Update: Now or never.

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, told Providence radio station WPRO during the day, “We can’t go all the way through to the convention fighting with each other while McCain and the Republicans lob in whatever free shots they want.” Whitehouse, a superdelegate who supports Clinton, added, “Let’s see how Tuesday plays out, and then let’s start thinking about how we’re going to get behind a candidate.”

Update: Be careful what you wish for, says Slublog. Really? Why? How could she be worse than Obama? Revisit this Krauthammer column. Even if she wins we’ve at least got a shot at triangulating her towards our side. What about His Holiness?