Thursday, May 8
The math in the Democratic presidential nomination race is little changed, but the perception certainly has following Barack Obama's solid victory in North Carolina and Hillary Clinton's narrow win in Indiana.

With those votes, Sen. Clinton's momentum was clearly blunted and Sen. Obama no longer appears on the verge of freefall, meaning that with only a few contests left, a postmortem on this historic battle is in order. Or perhaps a pre-postmortum, since you never know.

A number of hindsight observations suddenly seem in better focus. Among these are that:

1. It does her little good, but Sen. Clinton can still effectively argue that she is the better general election candidate, based on victories in major industrial states, and Sen. Obama still has something to prove, especially among white, working class voters. Democrats still have to take it on faith that he can win where the party typically wins, but there seems little doubt that they want to give him the chance.

2. Although Sen. Clinton might have been the better candidate when all this started, it seems highly unlikely that she could still rally all the Democratic voter groups she might have won had Sen.

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Obama not captured them as his own. These include African Americans, the anti-war left and young voters.

3. For Sen. Clinton to continue in the remaining primaries, making heavy attacks on Sen. Obama would do no one any good, including herself. If she wants to stay in the race in the event her opponent self-destructs, she would be well advised to aim her fire at Republican Sen. John McCain and the Bush administration, reminding Democrats of the ultimate prize.

4. For Sen. Obama to implode, it might, at this point, take a revaluation that he was secretly married four or five times, at least once to the Rev. Jeremiah Wright and once to Britney Spears, or some such absurdity. The media has been comparitively gentle with Sen. Obama thus far, somehow missing the Rev. Wright sermon controversy until after the candidate had a solid lead in the race. But the most damaging revelations concerning him may already have surfaced. The Democrats hope.

5. One major question that should be front and foremost now is whether Sen. Obama will be the Great Facilitator, as he has suggested, or the Great Compromiser. Those Americans who actually depend on Social Security, Medicare and access to affordable health care and higher education might want to know which it will be.

6. Neither Hillary nor Bill Clinton now owes much of anything to the Democratic Party, after so many party insiders abandoned her in favor of a newcomer with a mere 18 months in the Senate. Judases indeed. Overcoming a sense of betrayal is something she must, however, accomplish soon. Many in the party will be holding their breath as they watch for the signs.

7. Bottom line, though: Anyone who saw John McCain recently talking about future Supreme Court appointments would have seen a man who is getting old and slowing down and who, well, looks very, very beatable. Especially considering the record of the party he will be running on.