We are now a full news cycle beyond Obama's big win in North Carolina and his close call in Indiana Tuesday night, and for those of us following this race we now have a new question.

No longer is there any doubt about who the nominee will be. The question at this point is how will Hillary Clinton exit this race.

Will she gracefully withdraw and get to work uniting The Party or will she continue her divisive crusade against reality?  Fortunately for Obama supporters, Democrats, the United States of America and the rest of planet, Sen. Clinton's demeanor since Tuesday night suggests that she has opted to go with the former.

Ironically, Clinton may be able to do more to unite The Party at this point by staying in the race for a while rather than dropping out.

A Huckabee-style campaign as a matter of principle, simply to give the voters in the six remaining contests an alternative to Barack Obama, may work wonders in healing the wounds of this bitter primary fight thus far.

48 hours ago I would never have imagined Hillary Clinton being graceful about anything, but for the first time in this campaign the Senator from New York has shown some restraint. There have been no major attacks against Obama, or even McCain, launched from Team Clinton since the polls closed in North Carolina and Indiana.

If Sen. Clinton can maintain this humility and new found ability to accept reality she has an excellent opportunity to a great deal of good for herself and for Barack Obama.

By refraining from attacking Obama in the remaining contests, Clinton will slowly become more palatable to the huge numbers of Barack Obama supporters that she has angered throughout the campaign. The more support she has from Obama's camp the more likely she is to land a high-profile job in an Obama Administration.

She will also be doing Barack Obama a favor by essentially giving her supporters permission to stop attacking Barack and to even take a look at some of the many positives Obama's supporters have seen all along.

By not abruptly ending her campaign, Sen. Clinton now allows time for the idea that she is going to lose the nomination to slowly sink into her supporters minds. Rather than exit the race with a quick, clean cut while passions on both sides are high, Clinton, and even Democrats who support Obama, would be wise to allow this race to slowly de-escalate.

If, as an Obama supporter you're still not convinced Hillary needs to stay in the race a little longer, think about West Virginia next week. Sen. Clinton has maintained an almost 30-point lead in the state for months now.

There are only 28 delegates available in The Mountain State, so in the grand scheme of things it is irrelevant, but as we've seen in this race so far, perception matters.

The reality for Barack Obama in West Virginia is that he is going to lose no matter what Hillary Clinton does. Even if Clinton were to exit the race today, her name would still be on the ballot and Obama would lose to a ghost candidate.

A win in The Mountain State would also give Clinton a positive note to finish on. Instead of looking like she was forced out, she can claim one more victory and exit on what seems to be her own terms.

With all of that being said, the word being leaked from Team Clinton is that she will carry on past May 13th in West Virgina until mid-June, giving each of the remaining states an opportunity to take part in this historic election.

Either way, this is no longer a matter of if, but when.  At the risk of sounding like a certain President, major combat operations are, in fact over in this campaign.  The fighting is done and it is time for Obama supporters to be patient and allow the healing process to take its course.

We're going to need those Clinton supporters come November.

In the meantime Barack Obama can look forward to the next step in this process and hopefully get some much needed rest before the long, stressful General Election begins.