The (new) numbers

The NYT Caucus Blog has an updated tally of where the Democratic nomination race stands. Per their calculations:

Popular vote (including Florida & Michigan totals, bunk or not):

Barack Obama: 17.1 Million
Hillary Clinton: 16.7 Million

Total Delegates (pledged + super; total needed = 2,025):

Barack Obama: 1,847
Hillary Clinton: 1,686

Obama needs to acquire 178 delegates to clinch it and Clinton needs 339. In other words, Obama has 91.2% of the delegates needed to become the party's nominee while Clinton has 83.3%. In the six contests that remain there are 217 pledged delegates at stake and there are still approximately 223 superdelegates who have not yet made their preference known.

This thing is (as everyone else besides Hillary Clinton has surmised) all but over. What remains now is to end it with grace, dignity and unity in the party and move on to putting together a unified message on why Obama is the better candidate for America and why John McCain shouldn't be the 44th President of the U.S.

(oh, and figure out a way to dull the evident smear campaigns that are gearing up anti-Obama - unpatriotic, Wright, etc.)