Is she making a comeback?

A week ago at this time, pundits and political observers were discussing whether Hillary Clinton should drop out of the race if she didn't perform well in Pennsylvania. With polls showing the New York senator 3 to 10 points ahead of Obama, Democratic observers suggested that Clinton had to win convincingly in Pennsylvania to continue her campaign.

When the polls closed at 8 on the night of the primary, the race was "too close to call" and all the major news organizations declined to make a projection. That looked like good news for Barack Obama, whose campaign was hoping to limit Clinton's victory to low single-digits. But when the night ended and the votes had been counted, Clinton emerged with a 9.4 percent margin of victory. It was not quite the double digit win that some experts said she needed, but it was more impressive than the low single-digit margin that could have stalled her campaign.

After her win that night -- and the candidate's unusually direct televised appeal for cash -- the Clinton campaign reported taking in $10 million in 24 hours, which they described as the biggest day of fundraising in the entire campaign.

Then the news shifted to Barack Obama. "Why can't he close the deal?" the pundits asked. Ahead in delegates and popular vote, Obama had failed to win in Pennsylvania, Ohio, California, New York and New Jersey, some of the biggest and most important battleground states for a Democrat to win in a general election. And with Florida and Michigan added to the mix, the Clinton campaign boldly argued that it had overtaken Obama in the popular vote. The Obama campaign dismissed the claim because the primaries in Florida and Michigan didn't count, according to party rules.

But Clinton was on a roll. While Obama spent the past few days trying to distance himself from some of the recent remarks of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Clinton sought to generate momentum for her own campaign.

On Monday, Senator Clinton's campaign disclosed that it had won the endorsement of North Carolina Gov. Mike Easley, a superdelegate from a state that will hold its primary next Tuesday. At the same time, the Obama campaign announced the endorsement of New Mexico Senator Jeff Bingaman, but it was the Easley endorsement of Clinton that was likely to remain in the news during the run-up to the North Carolina primary.

Senator Clinton got more good news on Monday when a new AP-Ipsos poll was released showing that the New York senator seemed to have a better shot at beating John McCain than Barack Obama would. The poll said that Clinton would beat McCain 50 to 41 while Obama would only narowly defeat McCain 46 to 44, well within the 3.1 percent margin of error.   

The new poll numbers and the continuing media coverage of the Jeremiah Wright story might concern some superdelegates deciding which candidate to endorse, but there was one endorsement that both campaigns would love to have this week -- that of former Senator John Edwards of North Carolina. 

Although Edwards has indicated that he plans to remain neutral in the race, his wife Elizabeth -- described by the New York Times as "her husband's closest and most trusted adviser" -- has "made it clear that she favors Mrs. Clinton," the paper reported today. But what might give Hillary Clinton even more encouragement is that Elizabeth Edwards has reportedly tried to persuade her husband to do the same. There's no word from Edwards himself, but if he were to endorse Clinton it could give her the biggest boost yet for her campaign.