There's just not much time left on the clock. As impressive as the swings and shifts in the campaign have been, almost all of them have come in reaction to primary wins in large states, or collections of states. Hillary got a boost after New Hampshire, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. Obama loped forward after Iowa, South Carolina, the Potomac Primaries, Wisconsin, and now, North Carolina. But there's nothing really left on the board. Oregon is the closest thing to a competitive state, and it's not a terribly meaningful one. The voting isn't done, but the election is over. There are no states left that can really effect the shape of the race. And the shape of the race is this: Obama is ahead in delegates and votes. Clinton can hope that some sort of deus ex machina appears -- a secret from his past, or a scandal from his present -- but his momentum is now out of her hands. Her shot was to use her win in Pennsylvania to compound the electorate's worries that Wright and Bittergate and flag pins and gas taxes had wounded Obama and cut through his support. The proof was supposed to be a double digit win in Indiana and a smaller-than-expected margin for Obama in North Carolina. Instead Obama secured a double digit win in North Carolina and Clinton barely eked out Indiana. Now her campaign is out of money and behind in every conceivable metric the superdelegates could use to decide the nomination. In this campaign, you can never say never. But this campaign, at this point, is just about over. You can say that.
