Hillary Clinton - Please Just Do The Math

It's time to break out those calculators again, especially if you're supporting Team Clinton.

2+2 continues to equal 4, and Barack Obama's North Carolina blowout victory and virtual tie in Indiana clearly demonstrates that the current delegate math is just as concrete as that simple equation.

Hillary cannot win the nomination. The numbers simply are not working in her favor at this point, and neither is her argument about "electability." Obama withstood a withering attack from all sides during the past two weeks and emerged not only still standing, but likely stronger than before. That bodes well for the general election.

While I'm sure now that the Clinton campaign will rev up the disenfranchisement argument into high gear as relates to Florida and Michigan, she's basically running out of options. The party leadership in those states, and the Clinton's knew and agreed to the rules before this thing started. That they chose to move their primaries forward anyway is their fault, and everyone was fine with the proscribed punishment until the race tightened. I'm not compelled to change the rules in the middle of the game, and in any case, I think the Clinton's may be starting to accept the inevitable.

Clinton gave her "all the way to the convention" speech last night, but this has to be considered a crushing defeat for her. In fact, she has canceled her morning appearances on the network news shows. She will be meeting with her superdelegates today.

Obama now has at least 1818 delegates to Clinton's 1669 according to CNN. That gives him a lead of around 149 delegates. He only needs 207 more delegates to reach the magic number of 2025.

It is time for the Democrats to end this primary season and get on with the task of winning in November. That means you Super Delegates. Commit already and get this thing over with.

There's a unique dynamic underway in this election that presents unique opportunities. After 8 years of the Bush administration it shouldn't even come down to the personal charisma of the candidate to ensure a change, but it certainly doesn't hurt to have it either. Obama's candidacy and the enthusiasm it has engendered among voters from all segments of the population will help put into play some states that have been ignored in prior election cycles (hello, Texas). Not to mention the impact for other progressive candidates down ticket. A Democratic wave in other words.

Continuing this bruising fight for another month really makes no sense at this point, when the outcome is basically no longer in doubt.