Democratic Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton has found a lot of ways to explain her string of losses to Sen. Barack Obama:

• States with caucuses (Iowa, Maine, etc.), the former First Lady says, are undemocratic and cater only to party activists.
• The South (Louisiana, Alabama, etc.) has “a very proud African- American electorate” predisposed to favor a black candidate.
• So-called “red” states like Utah, North Dakota, Idaho, Nebraska and Kansas — all of which Obama won on Super Tuesday and this week — will never choose a Democrat in November anyway.

By this logic, only certain states actually matter, such as New Hampshire or New Jersey, states that Clinton has won. And, you know, Texas and Ohio, states Hillary now must capture to stay in the race.

The list of excuses is long, and the justifications wearing thin.

Barack Obama’s cross-country, four-state sweep last weekend and Tuesday night’s Chesapeake Bay massacre (our new name for the Potomac primaries) show us how the states Clinton suggests don’t count, well, kind of do.

We would argue that Maryland and Virginia - where Obama won more votes among every race, gender and income level - count for quite a lot.

By sacking her campaign manager and effectively punting much of February, the Clinton camp is trying to spin these recent defeats as best it can.

Yet with these efforts to re-calibrate expectations, Clinton ignores signs of real campaign success — all of which now favor Barack Obama.