A Day of Sadness

If the noises from the Clinton camp are to be believed, this thing will end in two weeks. Then comes the biggest question of all: whether Hillary's hardest-core voters can reconcile themselves to Obama (or vice versa, if it goes the other way), or whether a significant chunk will defect to John McCain.

LAT: "Barack Obama took a long stride toward history Tuesday, capturing a majority of pledged delegates to the Democratic convention even as he lost Kentucky by a wide margin to Hillary Rodham Clinton.

"Obama's big win in Oregon, combined with a share of Kentucky delegates, left him fewer than 100 shy of the 2,026 delegates needed to clinch the party's presidential nomination."

NYT: "Rebuffing associates who have suggested that she end her candidacy, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton has made it clear to her camp in recent days that she will stay in the race until June because she believes she can still be the nominee -- and, barring that, so she can depart with some final goals accomplished . . .

"In private conversations and in interviews, Mrs. Clinton has begun asserting that she believes sexism, rather than racism, has cast a shadow over the primary fight, a point some of her supporters have made for months. Advisers say that continuing her candidacy is partly a means to show her supporters -- especially young women -- that she is not a quitter and will not be pushed around."

Chicago Trib: "It is a purely Clintonian form of math, this idea of winning by losing.

"But it may be working. By any conventional means of keeping score--pledged delegates, superdelegates, primaries and caucuses won, popular votes in party-sanctioned contests--Sen. Barack Obama became the putative Democratic nominee for president Tuesday night."

Slate's John Dickerson, (under the telling headline "Lady, You're in My Way"):

"The race for the Democratic nomination--'race' is hardly the right word, is it?--now feels like a quantum physics problem: How long can a body exist in a state approximating motionlessness without actually stopping? Tuesday night, Barack Obama took the majority of delegates selected through primaries and caucuses, meaning that a race that was already all but over is now a little more so. Superdelegates are not likely to deny him the nomination by reversing the pledged delegates. They have been moving steadily in his direction despite recent losses. Obama needs to win fewer than 30 percent of the remaining delegates to reach the finish line.

"The math is relentless, yet Obama hasn't won yet, and Hillary Clinton shows no sign of stopping."

Politico's Roger Simon: "Hillary Clinton does not lack for victories. She has had several recently.

"What she lacks is a way to make her victories meaningful. What she lacks is an argument . . .