Hillary to concede, back Obama:
The former first lady told House Democrats during a private conference call Wednesday that she will express support for Barack Obama’s candidacy and congratulate him for gathering the necessary delegates to be the party’s nominee.
“Senator Clinton will be hosting an event in Washington, D.C., to thank her supporters and express her […]

As Matt Y. and others note, all this punditocracizing about why Obama won/why Hillary loss tends to miss the bloody elephant in the room…
Clearly, Iraq alone wasn’t enough to carry Obama to victory. But had Clinton voted against the war in 2002 there would have been no Obama challenge — it would have been a […]

Saw some of McCain’s utterly underwhelming speech last night - to “literally dozens” of people, snarked Attaturk over at Atrios’s place. Also saw Obama’s speech. Ditto Sullivan:
It was also rhetorically more powerful than McCain - not by a small amount but by a mile. Put McCain’s speech against Obama’s - and this was a wipe-out. […]

Don’t know why, always wind up watching CNN when it’s politics. Wolf Blitzer and CNN - like everyone else - annointing Obama as the Democratic nominee.
“This historic moment,” Blitzer intoned - and it’s true. That the United States - 160 years after slavery and civil war, 50 years after the inception of the Civil Rights […]

Hm.
Hillary Rodham Clinton has told congressional colleagues she would be open to becoming Barack Obama’s vice presidential nominee, saying she would consider it if it would help Democrats win the White House.
I suppose that confirms it.

John Cole gets it, I think:
There are several things at play here. First, the reality that Clinton is not going to win the nomination. Second, the reality that this signals the end of Clinton dominance of the Democratic party (though anyone who thinks they are now irrelevant is both wrong and stupid). Third, the notion […]

Stick a fork in the Clintons:
Hillary Rodham Clinton will concede Tuesday night that Barack Obama has the delegates to secure the Democratic nomination, campaign officials said, effectively ending her bid to be the nation’s first female president.
Obama is 40 delegates shy of clinching the nomination, but he is widely expected to make up the difference […]

Ruh-roh:
The former first lady gave no public hint of quitting the race, and she has said repeatedly she might continue her candidacy even beyond the end of the primaries.
But her husband, former President Clinton, strongly suggested otherwise. “This may be the last day I’m ever involved in a campaign of this kind,” he said as […]

The gaffe of all gaffes, it seems.
I tend to agree with Charlie C. in the previous thread that Hillary didn’t mean it as all that. Well, of course not. And she does, of course, “regret” the whole thing. But it does lend ominous overtones to her whole failure to see the inevitable and act accordingly.
And […]

Hillary Clinton defends her decision to stay in the race because…
“We all remember Bobby Kennedy was assassinated in June in California,” Clinton told the editorial board of a South Dakota newspaper. “ I don’t understand it,” Clinton added, alluding to the calls for her to quit.
Hey - bang bang, shoot shoot - maybe somebody’s gonna gun down Obama! And […]

Via Sullivan:
The Field can now confirm, based on multiple sources, something that both campaigns publicly deny: that Senator Clinton has directly told Senator Obama that she wants to be his vice presidential nominee, and that Senator Obama politely but straightforwardly and irrevocably said “no.” Obama is going to pick his own running mate based on […]

As in, Supreme Court?
Now, wouldn’t that just drive the wingers ’round the bend?

Via Will Bunch at Attytood, something David Gergen said last night that Hillary should be saying:
GERGEN: And it also raises the question in my judgment of whether she shouldn’t say, you know, if you want to vote against him because he’s black, I don’t want your vote. I don’t want to win that way. This […]

Not sure which is a bigger deal right now; the fact that Obama’s got the nomination all but locked up - or the fact that oil is now running over $130 a barrel.
The two are related, of course. We’re in uncharted territory financially, with oil/gas prices this high and affecting the cost of everything else. […]

Hillary cruises in Kentucky, and it doesn’t mean much:
As recently as May 6, Obama trailed Clinton among superdelegates, the officeholders and party leaders who will attend the national convention by virtue of their positions.
But in the days following his convincing victory in the North Carolina primary and his narrow defeat in Indiana, Obama has […]

 
Once again via Dave Pigeon, who seems to be getting there a step before me (hardly a surprise; he’s thinner) - John Edwards is endorsing Barack Obama:
Edwards, who received a thunderous ovation when Obama introduced him to a crowd of several thousand, said, “brothers and sisters, we must come together as Democrats” to defeat McCain. […]

Hm. Via Dave Pigeon, we see that Gov. Ed Rendell, himself touted as a strong choice for VP if/when Obama secures the nomination, says he knows of a better choice:
“If Senator Obama becomes our nominee and he wants someone to carry the Clinton banner there’s no question in my mind he should ask Hillary Clinton,” […]

Presented without comment (because there’s a first time for everything…)
2:57 p.m., Yeager Airport, Charleston, W.Va.: A steep descent brings Clinton’s plane to Charleston’s hilltop airport. After an appropriate wait, she steps from the plane and pretends to wave to a crowd of supporters; in fact, she is waving to 10 photographers underneath the airplane’s wing. […]

Spending the evening with the Penguins and Flyers rather than the W. Va. primary - it’s more competitive - but, Hillary’s margin of victory seems about what was expected.
I am more determined than ever to carry on this campaign until everyone has had a chance to make their voices heard,” Clinton told supporters as the […]

Kunstler, worth the weekly read, as always:
Back around the year 2000, I used to joke with my friends that Bill Clinton would return (despite the two-term limit) as Emperor Bill the 1st. He almost made it. I voted for him twice in the 1990s, but the new script addition wasn’t so appetizing. It would have […]