Enough is enough.  Barack Obama is the presumptive nominee.

The Superdelegates which, until recently, were Hillary Clinton's last, best hope are slowly trickling away from Clinton into the Obama camp.  Since Super Tuesday there has been a steady stream of former Clinton superdelegates and uncommitted superdelegates flowing in that direction.

The whole concept of Superdelegates is a bit complex.  It would take too much time for me to explain it all here, so instead you can check out our superdelegate page here at eyesonobama.com.  Timran, who has done a fantastic job with the site, has set up an excellent resource for everything you need to know about superdelegates.  And most important, the Net Gain Meter in the upper right hand corner has been tracking that flow of superdelegates towards Barack since the page was added to the site last week.

Some have argued that Clinton is still alive in the pledged delegate count.  She is not.  It is over.  And this is coming from a lifelong Cubs fan, a guy who knows a little something about false hope and optimism. 

I'd break it down indetail, but we had enough math in yesterday's post, so without getting too specific Clinton needs to beat Obama 66% - 34% in all of the remaining 10 contests.  This is not going to happen.

It might not seem like a huge number, but most political science professors and pollsters will tell you that elections are won or lost by the 20% of the population in the middle.  A 60% - 40% victory is the electoral equivalent of a shut out. 

Only in Arkansas, where Clinton was First Lady of the state while Bill was governor there, has Clinton managed an electoral shutout vs. Barack Obama. 

In the most extreme cases of electoral lopsidedness, as long as both major parties are on the ballot, the losing candidate still garners a significant portion of the vote. 

In fact, in the past eight years there have been two cases where in the general election for a U.S. Senate seat candidates have died just weeks before the vote.  In John Ashcroft's (R - Missouri) case, he lost his Senate seat to a dead man, whose wife ended up serving as the Senator.  In the case of Paul Wellstone's tragic death, Sen. Norm Coleman (D - Minnesota) very narrowly escaped a loss.

But in cases where both candidates are alive, and on the ballot, even the worst candidates manage to scrounge up a significant portion of the vote.

Take for example, Alan Keyes. 

Alan Keyes may have been the worst candidate for Senate that either major party has ever put up in the general election.  His opponent?  Barack Obama in 2004.

Barack Obama was coming off of a win in a very tough primary against eight opponents.  He was also quickly becoming a "rock star" in the Democratic Party following his 2004 key note address at the Democratic National Convention. 

At the same time, Obama's opponent Jack Ryan, who himself had won a tough primary against a large field, was stuck in a messy and public divorce that led to his exit from the race just a few months before Election Day.

The Illinois Republican Party, which was already having an awful year due to Gov. George Ryan's "bribes for licenses" scandal, scrambled to find a candidate who was willing to take a guaranteed electoral beating at the hands of Barack Obama in the fall.

Even the fearless and wildly popular former Chicago Bears head coach, Mike Ditka turned down the Illinois GOP.  The legendary Ditka was too smart to jump into a race against a rising superstar.    

So who did the Republicans turn to?  The right-wing lunatic and perennial candidate, Alan Keyes. 

Coincidentally, Keyes' name was already attached to Hillary Clinton's.  Keyes was very well known for a tirade against Hillary Clinton for being a carpetbagger when she moved to New York specifically to run for the U.S. Senate.

Ironically, now Keyes was moving to a state in which he never lived, less than three months before Election Day for the sole purpose of running for the U.S. Senate.  The man known for his rabid anti-carpetbagger stance was becoming one of the biggest carpetbaggers in American History.

Upon his arrival in Illinois he quickly announced that Jesus Christ himself would never vote for Barack Obama, and in fact would likely endorse Keyes.  That went over well.

He also referred to Dick Cheney's daughter as a "selfish hedonist" for being gay.

And in a moment of pure genius, he stated his opposition to the 17^th amendment, which determined that U.S. Senators would be elected by the people of their respective states, not by the state legislatures.  Good thinking Alan.  Screw democracy.

Not surprisingly, Alan Keyes suffered the worst loss in a race for the U.S. Senate in Illinois history.  His share of the vote - 27%! 

I have never seen or heard of a worse candidate in a worse situation than Alan Keyes, yet in what turned out to be the bluest state in the nation in 2004, a nutty extremist Republican managed to bring almost 1.4 million people out to the polls to vote for him. 

The point is that if Hillary Clinton suddenly learned how to inspire people, while Obama simultaneously began a series of nonsensical, rambling, far right-wing outbursts he'd still get 27%. 

If Hillary picked up the remainder she'd have 73%, only seven points more than where she needs to be right now. 

Sorry Hillary, but we are much farther than 7-points away from that scenario. 

It ain't gonna happen. 

It's over.

Barack Obama is the presumptive nominee of the Democratic Party.

A Special Thanks to my fellow bloggers at eyesonobama.com for the inspiration for today's post!

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