Support for Clinton Wanes as Obama Sees Finish Line.

Since March 5th I have been saying that this contest is over and that Hillary has lost, despite reading reports in the newspapers every day which painted a picture of a neck and neck contest. Now it appears that even those same newspapers can't pretend that we are still in a contest anymore.

The Guardian are leading with a call from George McGovern for Clinton to do the decent thing and stand down:

McGovern, the former Democratic presidential candidate and a friend of both Clintons for more than 30 years, became the most significant figure yet to call for her to stand aside, saying it was virtually impossible for her to win the nomination against Barack Obama.

"I think that the mathematics indicate that Senator Obama is probably going to be the Democratic presidential nominee," McGovern told MSNBC. "The time has come from Democrats to unite to get ready for a tough race this fall against [Republican] Senator [John] McCain."

The New York Times leads with the headline, "Support for Clinton Wanes as Obama Sees Finish Line" and states:

As adamant as Mrs. Clinton appeared on Wednesday, several advisers said that how long she would stay in the race was an open question. Some top Clinton fund-raisers said that the campaign was all but over and suggested that she was simply buying time on Wednesday to determine if she could raise enough money and still win over superdelegates, the elected officials and party leaders who could essentially hand Mr. Obama the nomination.

The Times have even quoted the insane Taylor Marsh and her refusal to read what's written large in front of her:

The top pundit calling for Senator Clinton to wave the white flag was NBC’s Tim Russert, who said of Mr. Obama, “We now know who the Democratic nominee’s going to be, and no one’s going to dispute it.” His remarks on primary night have been flying around the Internet as a YouTube moment.

Blogger Taylor Marsh, an outspoken Clinton supporter, published a vehemently angry post, calling Mr. Russert, among other things, a “loud-mouthed, self-important elitist.”

“Whose place is it to announce we have a nominee when neither candidate has enough delegates?” Ms. Marsh asked. “I’ll tell you who: no one.”

The Times quoted several more sensible sources from the media, who all came to the same conclusion:

Steve Kornacki of The New York Observer:

Clinton’s strategy since February 5 never stood much chance of working and allowed room for absolutely no slip-ups. Now it’s over.

John Aravosis of AmericaBlog:

There is no longer any reason for Hillary to continue in this race other than a desire to destroy Obama and make him lose in the fall so she can run again in 4 years. This farce needs to be ended now.

And Shaun Mullen of The Moderate Voice:

Yet with 90 percent of the pledged delegates now chosen, Clinton is once again picking up those goal posts, slinging them onto her itty-bitty shoulders… and is slogging on. This is not for the good of party or the nation, as she would have us believe, but because she cannot face up to the reality that she squandered pretty much a sure thing by engaging in the kind of divisive and fear mongering politics of which change-thirsty Americans are so fricking sick and tired.

The Clinton campaign, and her more insane supporters like Taylor Marsh, have been fooling themselves for months now, pretending that there was a contest when, in fact, none existed.

I have no sympathy for any of them. They have backed a campaign to kick Obama to death in the hope that this would force the super delegates to hand the nomination to Clinton. And now, in Indiana and North Carolina, the wheels have finally come off her bus. Her argument that Obama is unelectable has been shown to be the sham that we all knew it was.

The Washington Post says that Hillary soldiers on facing "almost insurmountable odds", but that's been the case since March 5th when she failed to win Texas and Ohio with a large enough margin to change the delegate count.

Every single thing she has done since that day has been utterly futile, damaging the presumptive Democratic nominee, whilst doing nothing to improve her chances of winning. Now, even national newspapers are beginning to say what the progressive blogosphere has been saying since early March: It's over for Hillary.

And now, at last, Taylor Marsh will realise what a Faustian pact she has made. She has greatly increased her readership by telling Clinton supporters what they wanted to hear. Now that Clinton's lost, those readers will simply slip away but - more importantly - she will find that those of us who used to read her daily, now no longer do.

It's not only been a long campaign, it's been an exceedingly nasty one, and some of us will never forget the shameful tactics which were employed.

Click title for full article.

UPDATE:

Here is a comment from one of Taylor Marsh's readers:

I think she and we should play slash and burn and tear this party down with us. They don't give a flip about us anyhow.

I already signed up and posted on McCains site. She has been screwed since Iowa and has had every obstacle. I want them to pay for it.

That really says all that needs to be said about Hillary's supporters at this moment in time.

UPDATE II:

McGovern gives his reasoning:

Tags: Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, US election 2008, Democratic presidential nominee