It seems to me that Hillary Clinton’s continued competitiveness in these late primary elections (she just won big in West Virginia) may be a very bad sign for the Democrats’ chances in November.

It’s been very clear for quite a while that 1) the delegate math is such that Obama is a huge favorite to eventually win the nomination, and 2) the longer the primary goes on, the more damage it does to the eventual nominee’s chances of winning (more money wasted, more weaknesses exposed, more bad feelings of the losing faction, etc.).

If I were a Democratic voter in one of these primaries, and had a moderate preference for Clinton over Obama, but a strong preference for a Democrat victory in November, and I thought my single vote mattered, I’d probably vote for Obama to help stop the bleeding for the good of the party. I’m sure some of Clinton’s supporters have done just that.

So, the fact that there are so many voters who are still voting for Clinton in these primaries indicates (to me) that there are many, many, Democrats who have such a strong preference for Clinton and/or dislike of Obama that they are willing to risk helping the Republicans in November in order to express their preference now.

I don’t know how many of these people will fail to vote for Obama in the general election, but if I were a Democrat I’d be concerned about it.