It was no surprise. Hillary Clinton won the West Virginia primary on Tuesday by a landslide margin of 67 percent to Barack Obama’s 26 percent. It was no surprise that Clinton won in a state, that Obama had virtually conceded – holding only one major campaign rally there - where the demographic profile of white, “blue collar,” non-college educated voters totally suited her.

It also wasn’t surprising that Clinton sounded very defiant in her victory speech in Charleston, West Virginia, telling her supporters, "I am more determined than ever to carry on this campaign, I am in this race because I believe I am the strongest candidate. ... I can lead this party to victory in the general election if you lead me to victory now."

But despite this victory that Clinton was celebrating, her momentum was shortlived when on Wednesday Obama picked up the coveted endorsement of Senator John Edwards, who earlier this year, dropped out of the race for the Democratic presidential nominee. Edward’s endorsement was sought after by both candidates, but now the 19 delegates that John Edwards netted could in fact go to Barack Obama.

Edwards from the beginning of the campaign has been an advocate for blue colar workers, and his endorsement of Obama may help to increase blue colar support for the democratic frontrunner.

Clinton’s big victory and words of confidence pale in comparison to the reality that she continues to lag way behind Obama in the key areas that matters. She only netted 10 pledged delegates on Tuesday, and now trails Obama by 159 pledged delegates (1,440 Clinton, 1,599 Obama). More Interestingly, she is also losing to him in super delegates.

In fact, while she celebrated her victory on Wednesday morning the Obama campaign announced that they had picked up three more super delegates, allowing him a total of 285 to her 273. Overall, Obama has 1,883 delegates, 142 short of the required 2,025 to win the nomination and Clinton has 1,713, a deficit 312. Obama also leads significantly in the poplar votes, a lead so large that even if the votes that were cast for Clinton in Michigan and Florida are added he would still win the overall popular vote.

Obama campaigned in Grand Rapids, Michigan on Wednesday with Edwards and will campaign in Florida next week. He has not campaigned heavily in either state which are pivotal to his chances in the general elections, if he is declared the Democratic nominee.

With the odds stacked up against her, speculation abound as to why Clinton is so defiant in continuing the primary race through to June 3 when the last primaries are held. These include her wanting to assure herself of the second- vice president- tier on the Obama ticket; wanting to show her strength so that she can be a power broker in the general elections; staking her claim to be elected in the presidential elections in 2012, should Obama fail to be elected in November, or falters if he is elected president. Whatever is right the facts are that Hillary Clinton is defying the odds and is intent on going all the way.

Though many polls are now showing that Democrats want both Obama and Hillary on the ticket (CNN – 55 percent; private poll conducted among African American Democrats in New York – 52 percent; University of Illinois 50 percent) the arguments could be moot. It is now apparent that Hillary Clinton does not want to be at the bottom of ticket but at the top, and she still believes that in some way she can accomplish this.

On May 20, primaries will be held in Kentucky, where polls show Clinton leading, and in Oregon were Obama leads. Both states carry a combination of 102 pledged delegates.