Oh yes, they displayed the depth of their knowledge, the force of their intellect and the breadth of their experience. They are, as you and other avid students of American politics know, Senator John McCain, who is now the presumptive nominee of the Republic Party; Senator Hillary Clinton, who would be the first woman president and her fellow Democrat, Senator Barack Obama, who would be the first black president.

Since then, the political scenario has changed drastically. The two Democrats have been literally going after each other’s throats like street fighters. They have hurled vicious invectives, resuscitated long forgotten "secrets" and everything else they could throw at one another, including the dirty kitchen sink in the race for the most powerful office in the world, while Republican McCain is trying to rise above the fray and quietly strengthening his ties with fellow Republicans.

And now Hillary and Obama are battling to sway the op inions of their party’s uncommitted "super-delegates", the party leaders and elected officials with automatic convention seats. Both candidates need their support to snatch the nomination during the party’s convention.

The crucial question at this point is who between the two, Hillary the former Fist Lady and now New York senator, and Obama, a first termer senator from Illinois, has the better chance of being propelled to victory in the race to the presidency.

Obama is running on a promise of a "new approach" to politics in America and he is up against Hillary who belongs to most formidable political dynasties in America. They have been running almost neck-and-neck in their bid for the Democratic nomination. Lately, Obama has surged slightly ahead of Hillary in their drive to win the most number of pledged delegates, but his tough-minded woman rival is determined to carry on her campaign.

This Hillary defying stance against all odds has triggered calls not only from the Obama camp, but also from other Democrats to call it quits. Even the commentariat in US broadcast and print media have echoed the same call to end the bitter fight between the two.

But Hillary refuses to bow out. Instead, she vowed she wouldn’t quit even in the face of the mounting pressure to do in favor of Obama. "I’m staying in this race until there is a nominee," she defiantly said. "And I’m going to work as hard as I can to become that nominee!"

Amazingly, her tough-minded stand won the praises of her loyal supporters for her "testicular fortitude." This in turn has prompted a New York Post columnist to write that Hillary’s "got cojones." Even one ubiquitous booster more vividly blurted out, "If she gave him (Obama) one of her cojones, they’d both have two!"

And soon enough other pundits picked it all up and commented that "the ballsy fighter is the new persona for a woman whom public life has taken from a liberal one to a devoted wife, from a wronged woman to a cerebral senator."

Can you imagine Hillary now being called, metaphorically, a man? Would this new persona bestowed by the pundits help her at all in clinching the Democratic nomination?

To one who has observed American political events for years, I doubt very much such an accolade will do it for her. Pundits have been wrong before and they’ll most probably be wrong again. Besides, they don’t decide the race. The American voters do.

And of course, Hillary has no obligation to quit before the voters can cast their votes in their party’s convention in August. There is, by the way, a lot at stake for Hillary that goes beyond that convention. If she doesn’t get nominated this time, she has to exit in such a way as to not damage her political future. If Osama loses the general election this year, he is unlikely to get a second chance in 2010 because the Democrats don’t like to renominate losers. Then Clinton could try for the nomination again, but even if she does not run for president in 2012, she is up for reelection to the senate that year. Or she could run for governor of New York in 2010. Or she might want to become majority leader of the Senate.

Now, let us go back to the beginning of the campaign for the presidency. Hillary began hers with the feminist appeal to women across the spectrum of class and race, not to mention that her appeal to the elderly and the workers in all fifty states of the United States. Her rival Barack has solidified a base of African and well-educated voters.

Ultimately, whoever is anointed as the Democratic Party’s nominee in the November presidential race would have to prove not just his or her electivity, but, more importantly, whether he or she can beat the Republican bet for that coveted Oval Office inside the White House in Washington, D.C.