Oba-meter: February 15th

With the Republican nomination sewn up by John McCain, Westmonster moves its focus to the Democratic competition. We've outlined the 4 things Barack Obama needs to do in order to beat Hillary Clinton — sweep February's remaining contests, make no gaffes, win Ohio or Texas on March 4th, and make progress on superdelegates — and we'll be giving progress reports regularly, until the Democrats choose a nominee.

1. February sweep: Having won everything since Super Tuesday, Obama's meeting expectations thus far. He still has to win Hawaii and Wisconsin, though. The former seems a lock, but Wisconsin's polling has only moved in his favour this week, and show his lead as thin as 4 percent, though a more recent poll shows may be getting wider. Clearly Hillary's people think she's still got a chance, because they're spending money on TV advertising in the state, but Wisconsin is win-win for the Clintons: if Obama wins, it was expected, and if Clinton pulls it off, it's another unexpected comeback.

2. No gaffes: No gaffes to report from the Obama campaign, whilst stories of infighting in the Clinton campaign circulate with abandon. Good news here for Obama.

3. Win Texas or Ohio: Bad news for Obama here. There's no recent polling from Texas, but in Ohio, polls over the last several days show Clinton with anywhere from a 14-to-21-point lead over Obama. The contests are weeks away, but that's a lot of ground for Obama to claw back in two weeks.

4. Superdelegate race: The past 24 hours have seen significant (and possibly foreshadowing) movement toward Obama here. At least two superdelegates formerly pledged to Clinton have switched to Obama. And a third — a particularly influential one — appears on the verge of doing so. These could be isolated, or it could be the start of a tide.