Someone finally notices that Hillary is done

By Robert Schlesinger

Jim Vandehei and Mike Allen over at Politico get the prize for being the first working reporters (the Robert Emmet gang — having been saying this for weeks — are self-employed rabble-rousers) to state the obvious: Barring unforeseen catastrophe, Hillary Clinton’s presidential bid is finished.

The Clintons managed to hypnotized the media into saying that the Ohio and Texas results had restarted the race, made it a clean slate. (Self-back-slapping: Robert Emmet called bullshit and predicted how it would spin out, both here on the site and at HuffPo.) But of course it was never the case.

And if the emergence of race as a cutting issue in the contest has reinforced anything, it’s this: Black voters have coalesced around Obama. They’re invested in him now.

From Politico:

Her own campaign acknowledges there is no way that she will finish ahead in pledged delegates. That means the only way she wins is if Democratic superdelegates are ready to risk a backlash of historic proportions from the party’s most reliable constituency.

Unless Clinton is able to at least win the primary popular vote — which also would take nothing less than an electoral miracle — and use that achievement to pressure superdelegates, she has only one scenario for victory. An African-American opponent and his backers would be told that, even though he won the contest with voters, the prize is going to someone else.

People who think that scenario is even remotely likely are living on another planet.

The problem is that many Clinton supporters refuse to accept the logic. Look — I’m not arguing that she should drop out. I think people should make those decisions on their own. But she and her supporters have got to understand that the road to the White House requires a deux ex machina, and not merely from superdelegates.