And Obama has had a lot more of them. Hillary needed big margins (20 pt) in the remaining contests to even get her pledged delegated delegate deficeit to _just_ 100.

This is a win for her the same way that Louisiana and Kansas were wins for Huckabee. Too little, too late.

Let's be clear: she won her neighboring state with the second oldest population in the nation and the race was still competative. She lost ground.

What is her path to victory now? win Indiana by 40 points? North Carolina by 10? Somehow get Arkansas sized victories in Oregon, Montana, and South Dakota?

It would have been nice if Obama had won, but his nomination didn't depend on it. Heck, by gaining as much ground as he did he won by virtue of not letting hillary's win have much of an impact.

And get over the spending margins. Obama is far outpacing Hill on primary fundraising. What was he supposed to do, not spend it?

Hillary still has a chance of getting the nomination, in a theoretical sense. The same theoretical sense that says I have a chance of being adopted by Bill Gates and marrying Kristen Bell. That said, the reality is that she has yet to meet a real bench mark needed to overcome the losses she received in February. She needed to step up and she hasn't. Obama isn't going to get a knockout. He doesn't need to. He is going to win by decision.

Personally, I think the electoral college sould be like the Democratic system: Award delegates by legislative district. That way you would actually see candidates in more than 10 states after the conventions.

The Democratic Primary system has been the system that has been used for years. But suddenly when an outsider candidate gets an advantage from it, the system is suddenly "undemocratic". The Clinton were in the pole position to change this in the Nineties but opted not to.

Grow up children, you don't change the rules in the middle of the game. If it really bothers you try to get the rules changed before the next game.

The thing is, Hillary isn't going to get the superdelegate support she needs to win the nomination. Mathmatically _possible_, but the reality is that the superdelegates are nearly split the same way that the general public is. That kind of split isn't going to get her to 2025.

She can certainly force it to go to the convention even if enough declared supers put Obama over the top, she can just claim that they can change their minds. Whether it is a good thing for the party is another matter.

At first I was ok with Clinton continuing on, if for no other reason than to keep interest in Democrats up and to give her a platform for issues she cares about. But she really crossed a line when she and Bill make statements that stop just short of saying that Democrats should vote for McCain over Obama in November.

There is a difference between declaring a campaign dead six months before a single vote is cast and declaring one dead with 80% of the contests finished.

While Hillary could technically still get the nomination it'd be a situation where even if she wins, she will lose.

Any general election polling done now is done without knowing the impact of the smoke filled room Democratic convention that would be needed to make her the nominee. The Hillary that pollsters are asking about now is a Hillary that is just a candidate. The Hillary that people would be asked to pull a lever for in November would be the Hillary that enticed a large majority of party insiders to go against the trend of the regular democratic voters.

It is good to see Obama expanding his delegate lead week after week.

Through Carter, Reagan, Bush, Clinton, and W I have never heard a president specifically talk about race with the complexity Obama did today. At most any mention of race never strayed from the idea that "Racism is bad, M'kay?". I can't remember a serious presidental contender giving this type of speech.

I've rarely heard _anyone_, let alone a politician, connect both the struggle against segregation and the legitimate resentment lower and middle class white people have with issues such as busing and affirmative action. Never have I heard it laid out in such an elequent manner. Maybe if I go back and read the speeches of Martin Luther King, Abraham Lincoln, or Thomas Jefferson I would find a common spark, but right here in this time it is Barack Hussien Obama who is putting into words the sense of injustice and hope for a better future that people from all walks of life feel but can have difficulty articulating.

With the possibilty in our reach of having a leader that can steer this country towards a more perfect union for all its citizens, I have to beg forgiveness if I don't seem concerned about whether universal health care has to be mandated or if people can opt out. The details will work themselves out as long as we have leaders that understand the fundemental concerns of all Americans.