The Day After

As I said over at Dreaming Up Daily, I hardly had time to get deeply depressed last night before I got an email that began:

We may not know the final outcome of today's voting until morning, but the results so far make one thing clear. When the dust settles from today's contests, we will maintain our substantial lead in delegates. And thanks to millions of people standing for change, we will keep adding delegates and capture the Democratic nomination.

It was signed: Barack.

The final tally of Tuesday is not yet complete even on Wednesday night, and probably won't be for days, as delegates are allocated. But as of today it seems Hillary Clinton picked up a net of but 12 delegates out of more than 370 at stake. The Obama campaign projects the final total will be more like 4. In the meantime, Obama picked up 5 more superdelegates Wednesday, including the Mayor of Dayton, Ohio, while Clinton picked up a net of 1. And there is now a second source on the story that surfaced yesterday that some 50 super-delegates are soon to declare for Obama. (I suspect that if it happens, it will be after Saturday's contest in Wyoming.)

Several commentators pointed out that the delegate math still makes it extremely unlikely that Clinton will overtake Obama's lead in delegates. Yet it seems the campaign will go on. However, there were a couple of indications today as to its limits. Several prominent Democrats said it should be resolved before the Convention. And Donna Brazile, who with a single statement quelled the Clinton drive to win with super-delegates while behind in votes, today said "If these attacks are contrasts based on policy differences, there is no need to stop the race or halt the debate. But, if this is more division, more diversion from the issues and more of the same politics of personal destruction, chairman Dean and other should be on standby."

That's going to be difficult for Hillary. She only won after going blatantly negative and sub-rosa racist. Or as Beth Broderick put it: The whining, spitting, savage God awfulness of Hillary's campaign can only be seen as bad intent and that is not good for anyone, not for women, not for democrats and not for the Country. We must turn the page on this kind of politics or risk being thrust into a dark age that will fill us with longing for the simple stupidity of the past eight years.