Maybe it took the prospect of going down to an inglorious defeat to a relative political novice to get Hillary Clinton to loosen up.

In the last 72 hours, the New York senator has appeared on both "Saturday Night Live" and "The Daily Show." On both appearances, she was calm, relaxed and natural, qualities that have been decidedly lacking in her campaign. The question heading into today's important Texas and Ohio primaries is whether this new -- or is it new, new? -- Hillary will resonate with voters.

The latest Zogby polls shows that Clinton is leading challenger Barack Obama 47% to 44% in Texas. Both candidates are deadlocked in Ohio at 44%. "The latest polling numbers are promising for Clinton, but with 8% of likely Democratic voters undecided in Ohio and 7% undecided in Texas both candidates have work to do today," writes Jessica Fargen of the Boston Herald. "Texas offers 228 delegates, Ohio 164."

Obama's honeymoon with the media -- which lasted an unusually long time -- also is coming to an end. The Illinois senator's campaign has stumbled somewhat in how it responded to criticisms that its opposition to NAFTA -- a critical issue in Ohio -- was less than genuine. Moreover, his one-time political benefactor Antonin Rezko is on trial for political corruption in Chicago.

But this rebound from Clinton may be too little too late. Unless she stuns political pundits and wins huge, pressure will mount on her to quit the race.

Hillary Clinton must win by gargantuan margins in next week's primaries in Ohio and Texas or else her campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination will be over, according to her husband former President Bill Clinton and other political pundits. The odds of that happening are daunting.

Polls show that Clinton, who has lost ten straight contests to Obama, is losing ground to the Illinois senator in Ohio and that she is virtually tied in Texas. Over the past few months, Clinton's support has eroded among almost every demographic group and there is no sign that is going to change.

These days, Clinton exudes all of the charm of a middle school disciplinarian. Her recent outburst that Obama should be "ashamed" of himself for sending out misleading advertising mailers is a case in point. Factcheck.org, which argued that she has some valid points, argued that Clinton is no slouch in stretching the truth in her advertisements either: