You want to talk media hype? Fine, let's. Right now, it's looking like Sen. Clinton's major "comeback" victory last night will result in -- at best -- a margin of +10 delegates. (And that's being charitable. With the caucus results as they are right now, it's looking closer to being +4.) She's still down *at least* 100 delgates, and that's again being charitable. And now, for some reason, we're supposed to wait until PA for the next big contest.

What this ignores -- despite the fact I've already mentioned that Clinton has now basically been mathematically eliminated -- is that Obama will likely erase that +10 delegate win, and then some, with his margins in Wyoming and Mississippi just next week.

This isn't about what I say. It's about what the math says. Like I said to zenhead, go find one of the delegate calculators and try it yourself.

Also, I didn't say anything about cutting a protracted battle short. I said it should be ended when it's over. Mathematically, this race is now over.

Rage against the machine all you'd like, but numbers don't lie. From now herein, the Clinton campaign is running on borrowed time.

In the debate, Sen. Obama was responding to the following assertion by Clinton: "I was fighting against those ideas when you were practicing law and representing your contributor, Rezco, in his slum landlord business in inner city Chicago."

When Blitzer posed the question to Obama, he said thus: "Senator Clinton made a serious allegation that you worked for a slumlord. And I wonder if you want to respond."

And Obama did respond. He gave the answer you're calling an outright lie. But, that, in fact, is the correct answer to the question. Obama may have known Rezco for 15-some-odd years, but those legal hours were the only time he worked for or "represented" him, which was the key to both Clinton's smear and Blitzer's query.

Yes, he has known him longer. But that wasn't the question asked, and it'd be a strange thing for him to volunteer in the middle of a fractious debate. But, if you *really* have a problem with that sort of semi-evasive, lawyerly answer, I presume you won't be voting for Hillary Clinton.

I'm on the Obama mailing list. They've been making a big deal about this being a delegate race since Day 1. In fact, that was the key to their campaign strategy, a strategy that showed its strength on Super Tuesday and particularly thereafter.

I'll concede they might be making more of a big deal about delegates right now. That's because, mathematically, Clinton can't catch up now. Thus, the race is over.

That's a rather slender peg to hang one's hat on.

But, even if we use your list, and pretend that Iowa, Nevada, et al have no delegates to speak of yet, Obama has *still* been ahead in the pledged delegate since before Super Tuesday (since SC, to be precise -- although, like I said, everyone has known he's been ahead since Iowa.)

So, in other words, you were still wrong.

Arroyocat, how 'bout we just throw out all the contests that Sen. Clinton has lost? Will that work? I'm sure we can find problems with most of them.

Zenhead, your post relies on a bunch of goofy assertions that have no basis in anything but your own opinion. But, if we can talk about reality for a second, perhaps you should go play with a delegate calculator for an hour or two and realize the inevitable: Sen. Clinton has lost -- after last night's numbers, she cannot catch up in pledged delegates. It's now just a matter of time before she's forced out of the contest by the supers.

Kevin, please don't make stuff up. Sen. Obama has led in pledged delegates since the very first contest.

As you may remember, Sen. Obama won Iowa while Sen. Clinton came in third.

New Hampshire was a delegate tie.

Sen. Obama famously won more delegates in Nevada (13 to 12), despite being edged out in the popular vote.

South Carolina was an Obama rout.

And on Super Tuesday, Obama ended up finishing the day with more delegates.

So, every step of the way, Obama has led in pledged delegates. And, not coincidentally, the Obama campaign has never not emphasized the importance of delegates.

As of last night, the math is inexorable.

The official end for the Clinton campaign may come after WY and MS. Or perhaps after PA. Or perhaps after NC or Puerto Rico. Or maybe even the convention.

But, after Sen. Clinton failed to win last night by the margin she needed to stay viable, her bowing out has become a foregone conclusion, like death and taxes. Last night may have seemed like a victory. Due to the margins, it was a loss, and her campaign knows it.

It's over, and Sen. Barack Obama will be the Democratic nominee. Ickes and Penn can shout momentum to the heavens, but they blew it by not contesting the February races.

The only thing they can do now is make Obama bleed for the general. Which is why we can probably expect Clinton to keep acting like a McCain surrogate until the party takes her toys away.