The New Nation - Internet Edition

AP, Charleston

The Democratic presidential race runs on two tracks now, one snaking through the West Virginia primary Tuesday and the other mapped out by Barack Obama through battleground states in the fall. Hillary Rodham Clinton had every reason to expect a big victory over Obama in West Virginia yet scant hope it could turn around her presidential bid.

She campaigned, though, like it mattered, even as Obama did little more than a drop-by in a state that seemed poised to shun him.

Interest is keen in the primary, judging by a record turnout of more than 70,000 people who cast ballots in person before Tuesday in the state's liberal early voting system. The Illinois senator may be only a few weeks from clinching the Democratic nomination, no matter what happens in West Virginia or in another Clinton stronghold, Kentucky, a week later.