Barack Obama is our nominee. It is basically mathematically inescapable at this point.

Clinton supporters who keep hoping-beyond-hope that she'll win the nomination: I'm sorry to puncture your "false hopes," but it is time for a "reality check." After not coming through as she needed in Ohio and Texas, Clinton is now basically mathematically eliminated. Go play with a delegate calculator and figure it out yourself, if need be.

JosieOrtez was getting flip about this a few pages ago: This is not me talking, it's the math. You might as well rail against gravity.

Shapiro's article is doing people a disservice by not making it plain that the race is now over. Fortunately, some other pundits (Alter, Fournier, Halperin) are better at numbers.

As for the "ALL THE PEOPLE SHOULD VOTE FIRST!!" argument, somehow I can't imagine Clinton folk taking this position if she'd swamped February 5 as per her original plan. And, heck, maybe we should bring the whole gang of 8 back to the stage: Biden, Dodd, Richarson...you may be mathematically out of it, but we need to keep this going to assuage the vanity of Hillary Clinton, so come on back.

It's over, people. Rail against me all you want, but I'm just the messenger. At this point, since she failed to come through as she needed in OH and TX, Clinton is "drawing dead." It's just a matter of time before she's forced out.

Don't say you weren't warned.

Go play with a delegate calculator and figure it out yourself.

You may not have gotten the memo, but delegates is how they pick nominees since, lo, time immemorial. That's why we don't even have accurate head counts from the caucuses.

Sorry to ruin your day, but -- like I said -- the Clinton campaign is drawing dead. Feel free to put your head back in the sand, but don't be surprised when the end comes.

Yes, you're right. Understanding how government works is as important as the mathematics.

And here's where that comes in.

[a] The major superdelegates (Pelosi, Biden, Richardson, etc.) have all already said that they will not overturn the pledged delegate count.

[b] No superdelegate has said they'd overturn the pledged delegate.

[c] Overturning the pledged delegate count would be tantamount to political suicide

[d] The pledged delegates have no vested interest in backing Clinton's power-grab (if they did, they'd already be behind her), particularly when you consider that

[e] Obama fares better in every single poll versus McCain out there.

So when you factor in the political reality that the pledged delegate leader will be the winner of the contest, and superdelegates will just move to ratify that person -- as I and most people think it should be anyway -- the mathematical reality comes into focus.

Reality counts.

Don't choke on those sour grapes.

I'm a strong Obama supporter, and I believe the Clinton campaign has shown time and time again now that there's no level they won't sink beneath in the name of trying to win a race they've already mathematically lost.

All that being said, I really don't think there was a conscious attempt to further emblacken Obama here. They may have darkened the whole picture to give the ad a more menacing feel, but, if that's the case, I don't believe they thought out the racial ramifications of that act.

(I believe this in part because this was a Mandy Grunwald-created ad, I've heard, and I really don't believe she rolls like that. Mark Penn, maybe, but not Grunwald.)

Arthur, how much more do you need to know about a Roland Emmerich cheesefest coming out in the 300 slot? It was 90% likely to be garbage in any event -- Zacharek just confirmed it.

You'd be hard-pressed to find a better movie reviewer around, imho. Particularly given how unbearably facile the political coverage has become around here of late, Zacharek is the only reason I might consider re-upping on the premium membership when it expires this summer. She's the real deal, and no mistake.

To be exact.

Resigning isn't going to solve this problem. Samantha Power needs to have her head thrust upon a pike outside the Clinton campaign offices, as a warning to anyone in the future who dares to speak ill of our Senator from New York.

Except Tina Fey. When she calls Sen. Clinton a bitch, Pres. Clinton calls her up to thank her.

Sigh...seriously, though, it's not Samantha Power's fault that Clinton has lost this election. But I guess she was intimidated by her, because Power actually has national security credentials. She was risking her life to study genocide while Clinton was toodling around in Bosnia with a security detail and Sinbad.

It's about delegates. As Mark Penn has kindly reminded us.

(But, if you're throwing money away at this late date on the Clinton campaign, feel free to send some my way.)

And, hey, speaking of delegates, they just certified the California numbers, and Obama picked up 8 more. (http://calitics.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=5248) That's twice as much as Sen. Clinton got on March 4th, you may recall, when she won Ohio and LOST Texas.

You can keep saying it, and saying it, and saying it, and saying it. It doesn't make it true.

Clinton pulled all of 4 delegates out of Wyoming, Texas, Rhode Island and Vermont.

There's a good bet Obama will match -- or exceed -- that with his take in Wyoming and Mississippi.

Not that it really matters, since, for all intent and purposes, Sen. Clinton has been mathematically eliminated.

Sorry. It's OVER.

And by Wyoming, I meant OHIO. My b.

And I'd refer you to your calculator.