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Update: 3 more Supers go to Obama today. See end of story for details. 6pm:Make that 4.

As my friend, David Knowles, noted yesterday, Barack Obama has now taken the Superdelegate lead from Hillary Clinton for the first time in this campaign. After taking the lead, more and more supes began to fall Obama's way. Even before Tuesday, the delegate math had stopped adding up for Hillary.

The Political Machine also reports that Rasmussen has stopped polling the Democratic Primary race, Terry McAuliffe has signaled that the end is near, and negotiations for a VP slot are already under way.

In the face of such inevitability, the question is now, not if, but when Hillary Clinton Conventional wisdom varies a lot on this, from just after the Kentucky primary on May 20, to June 3, the date of the last primary, with some convinced she'll still go to the convention. I suggest a different date. If not today, then tomorrow or Monday. She can skip right over the defeat and go right to accepting that Vice Presidency, having ended on the high note of a victory in Indiana.

The alternative is to watch a flood of Supers go to Obama, and possibly even lose in West Virginia and Kentucky. She can be Rocky Balboa from the first film, or William Wallace's vanquished Braveheart.

Whatever happens, I want to see Democrats behaving with grace and good sportsmanship toward Hillary and her supporters. Obama himself has struck the right chord, as did Senator Claire McCaskill on Thursday's conference call, but the same cannot be said for Ted Kennedy. Worse than that, though, was this display of disrespect on CNN Tuesday night, which I have just now seen for myself.

Arianna Huffington has been vindicated. Last week on her site, she recounted how--at a Hollywood dinner party at the home of Candice Bergen--John McCain and his wife Cindy boasted that they hadn't voted for George W. Bush back in 2000.

McCain denied Arianna's account via a spokesperson, who said, "consider the source." Well, The New York Times and The Washington Post went out and found a couple of sources of their own--People who were also sitting near the McCains, and heard the remarks.

From the Post:

In separate phone interviews, Bradley Whitford and Richard Schiff--both of whom starred in the television political drama "The West Wing"--said the senator made the remarks after he spoke at length about his reservations about Bush becoming president.

Now that is rich. The McCains rubbing elbows with the Hollywood elite, and holding forth on their dislike of Bush. There's a little "red-meat" for conservatives to chew on.

I guess we should all consider the source whenever McCain fires up the Straight-Talk Express.

George Stephanopoulos reports (via RealClearPolitics):

"I think it's very much a possibility and there are others around Sen. Clinton, other top Democrats who think the strongest ticket would be a joint ticket," George Stephanopolous, ABC News' chief Washington correspondent, said Monday on "Good Morning America."

The dream team ticket was discussed earlier this year, but fell by the wayside as both sides ramped up the rhetoric against each other, intensifying their battle for the Democratic nomination.

The talk has revived as Clinton now looks like an ultra-long shot for the presidential nomination, and her disappointed supporters are threatening to vote for presumptive Republican nominee Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., instead of Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill.

"There are intermediaries discussing this very scenario," Stephanopoulos said on "GMA".

Absolutely. I expect this to be the natural outcome of this primary (also see Tommy's piece). At this point Hillary is doing enough damage, she can demand it if she wants it. And Obama has proven that he is extremely weak where Hillary is strong. He must be loathe to admit it, but he needs her.

One question is whether she is demanding that he pay her debt off. That could be a grating thing to do, and my initial response would be to go pound sand. But again, if she wants to be veep, she could probably get that spot and her debts paid off.

If this comes off, I hope McCain enjoyed his little holiday, because the fun time is over. We will now witness the power of this fully armed and operational battle stat... Oops wrong movie. Anyway, Obama and Clinton will come together, their supporters will come together, and they will destroy him with full on attacks and endless sniping. Age, ties to Bush, Iraq, connections to lobbyists, Keating five, temper and temperament, it's all out there and waiting. And it's going to be ugly.

Oh and one other stipulation that Obama should demand: Bill Clinton must NOT be a part of the package.

After months of advising his listeners to vote for Hillary Clinton in open Democratic primaries, ultra-conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh is changing his tune by urging Democratic superdelegates to force the issue and make Barack Obama their nominee. From CNN:

"I now believe he would be the weakest of the Democrat nominees," Limbaugh, among the most powerful voices in conservative radio, said on his program. "I now urge the Democrat superdelegates to make your mind up and publicly go for Obama."

"Barack Obama has shown he cannot get the votes Democrats need to win -- blue-collar, working-class people," Limbaugh said. "He can get effete snobs, he can get wealthy academics, he can get the young, and he can get the black vote, but Democrats do not win with that."

But Jamal Simmons, a Democratic strategist and Obama supporter, disagreed, saying the Democratic Party has "the best coalition to go out and talk to people across racial lines, which are the unions."

Limbaugh's plan to interfere in the Democratic Primary process, dubbed "Operation Chaos," was given legitimacy yesterday when Obama supporter John Kerry attributed Hillary Clinton's victory in Indiana to the gabber's tactic. What is behind this reversal? Is Rush being sincere? Is he mad at Bill Clinton for "hitting on" his "date?" Or is it all some kind of triple-reverse psychology?

For a little while there, it looked like Hillary Clinton had a shot at mounting a comeback. But on Tuesday, that pesky math caught up with her. There's simply not enough time, or delegates, remaining for her to pull it out. Barack Obama has won. Such is the prognosis from all of those but the most hardened loyalists. Here then, a compendium of obituaries for Hillary's '08 bid for the presidency.

First, a few editorials from today's papers:

The Seattle Times gives us "Clinton's end: time to yield and unify," that conculdes:

Clinton's campaign is over. She is perhaps the last to know.

Face Off is back! Two of our writers will be posting separate pieces on a hot-button topic. You can check out both and then vote for the one that speaks to you and aligns with your views. Last week's edition took on who's to blame for the ever-climbing cost of gas.

Today the topic is Obama's Rev. Wright issue. Is he past it?

Check out today's posts:


Tommy Christopher writes:

This Democratic Presidential campaign has featured an unprecedented level of magma-hot coverage, most of it focused on tangential issues like gaffes, fluff, smears, pandering photo ops, and manufactured "scandals." Based on media coverage, the Reverend Wright affair is the granddaddy of them all.

Based on several factors, most decisively and recently Tuesday's Democratic Primary results, more and more voters are rejecting these less-than-relevant issues in favor of substance. Smart is back.

Continue reading Obama Over the Wright Hump

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Mark Impomeni writes:

Obama's sudden turnaround on Wright, designed to put the issue behind him, actually raises more questions about Obama's relationship to the fiery pastor and about Obama's judgment in remaining as a member of his church for so long.

Continue reading Obama's Answers Create More Wright Questions

Be afraid, John McCain. Be very afraid.

I'm going to do a Joe Namath here and guarantee victory in November for President Obama and Vice President Clinton. In the past several days, every single regular voter that I've talked to has said that such a ticket is a guaranteed winner, and I'm inclined to agree. The hardest part of this election, some would argue, will be engineering that ticket. I disagree.

I wrote a piece back in March, or as it's known in campaign circles, The Paleolithic Era, making the case for a dream ticket. Check it out if you can, much of the analysis still holds true. One key, and discouraging, difference:

Jonathan Alter last night on Countdown floated the notion that the 32% of Hillary supporters who promise to flip to McCain will come to their senses by November, but he didn't address McCain's strong appeal to women voters. 32% of Hillary supporters is a large bloc, certainly large enough to swing the general election. Barack would be a fool to risk that. Conversely, Obama's mainly young supporters are less likely to actually stick with McCain, who does poorly with that demo.

Exit polls last night showed that now, only 45% of Hillary voters would support an Obama-led ticket, as opposed to 70% of Obama voters who would have backed a Hillary nod. That's okay, I have the answer to that problem. If the Democrats are smart, and I know there's precious little evidence of that lately, they will...Updates: Comments from both campaigns at the end of the story.

That's the news leaked by The Drudge Report, a suspect source if ever there was one, but now confirmed by the AP and Howard Wolfson. The details? Hillary Clinton has dipped into her personal fortune once again, loaning her campaign another $6.4 million last month, and that she'll be transferring even more funds from the joint bank account soon.

The last time the alarm was sounded that hard financial times had befallen Clinton's campaign, donors opened their wallets big time, and came to her rescue. Since then, however, we've learned how much money the Clintons made since Bill left office, and, after yesterday's primaries, Hillary's chances suddenly look bleak at best. So will loyal Clinton supporters ride to the rescue yet again?

Camp Clinton has struggled with debt ever since Super Tuesday. Last night, I even heard one MSNBC pundit suggest that one factor in any deal paving Clinton's exit from the race would be for Obama to agree to pay off Hillary's outstanding campaign debts.

Meanwhile, kos wonders if Hillary will stay in the race to try and raise money to cover her debts. I suppose he means that she'd technically still be in it, hold fundraisers and continue to take in money online, but not actually spend all that much in the next few primaries.

In the possible last (in)significant primary season edition of "prediction folly," we're gonna go out with a bang. After the jump, we have an uber-big prediction. It's mostly folly, but you won't know until it doesn't happen!

Today, the states of Indiana and North Carolina gather to cast their primary votes in the Democrat contest. For Hoosiers, the polls close at 7pm EST and for Tar Heelers they close at 7:30pm EST.

The polls are literally no help. They range from mega-leads for Barack Obama in both states, to Hillary Clinton narrowly pulling it out in either. Campaigns literally have a buffet of numbers to pick for backing of their particular arguments.

So it's up to the voters...those brave souls inside the voting booths to make their choice!

Fresh off a gas tax holiday idea that over 200 economists (including noted elitist Nobel Prize winners) have panned, Hillary Clinton has followed-up with another startling proposal sure to rouse populist blood pressure but, like the tax holiday, never amount to a hill of beans. As oil prices have reached record levels, Hillary has sensed a campaign opening, so she's sticking with the "Gas" category, but raising the wager somewhat. Now, she's going after the big boys: OPEC, your days are numbered. As Ben Smith reported yesterday, Hillary boldly declared the following:

"We're going to go right at OPEC. They can no longer be a cartel, a monopoly that can get together once every couple of months in some conference room in some plush place in the world, they decide how much oil they're going to produce and what price they're going to put it at."

And the Indiana crowd applauds, Mission Accomplished. A couple of problems: OPEC isn't to blame for our sorry state of affairs, and a President Clinton would be hamstrung to do anything about it even if it was. But hey, it sure made for a nice campaign speech.