It’s over. After everything that happened, after all the shit-slinging of the last two weeks, despite everything that came down the pike, Team Obama delivered the predicted crushing victory in North Carolina – and more impressively, are at this hour running less than 4% behind Team Clinton in Indiana, and that without any returns from Lake County (think Gary, Indiana – which should be an Obama stronghold for multiple reasons). The net result will be at least +3 delegates for Obama and an increase in the popular-vote lead by about 180K or so.
And that’s the end of it. Despite her best stand, despite the momentum from Pennsylvania, despite the return of the Rev. Wright and the first serious racial ad in North Carolina, despite shots of Crown and guns galore, Team HRC will end the day further behind Team BHO than when the day began. They are not closing the gap at all – they are falling further behind in delegates, in votes, in superdelegate commitments, and in fund-raising.
Bottom line: there is no way for Hillary Clinton to become the nominee without subverting the expressed will of the party-in-electorate.
Ballgame.
ETA: make that +6 net for Obama and +217K votes. MSNBC is reporting that Team Clinton has cancelled all appearances tomorrow. And the head of the Republican party in Lake County has publicly avowed that there is no shady dealing going on; the calculation of over 11,000 absentee ballots has to be factored in and he has confidence in the results. Of course, he has to be uneasy that Democrat turnout beat GOP today by over 3-1; couple that with the fact that almost a quarter of Indiana R’s voted for somebody other than McCain, and you can’t get too sanguine about perhaps the most reliably stalwart GOP stronghold in the Middle West…