No Roadmap for Dems as Race Ends: Obama wheezes across finish line, HRC comes to terms with defeat

[DeepModem Mom]

NYT: No Road Map for Democrats as Race Ends
By ADAM NAGOURNEY, CARL HULSE and JEFF ZELENY
Published: June 1, 2008

The most fiery and exhausting presidential primary campaign in at least a generation is sputtering to an end, with Senator Barack Obama likely to gain enough delegates to claim the Democratic nomination later this week as the party faces another drama: how, when and even whether Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton will depart the race.

Montana and South Dakota will vote Tuesday, after Puerto Rico does so on Sunday, finishing a process that began precisely five months ago to the day in Iowa. Even if those results do not put Mr. Obama over the top, aides to both Mr. Obama and Mrs. Clinton said they expect enough superdelegates to rally behind Mr. Obama in the 48 hours after the final primaries to allow him to proclaim himself the nominee.

In many ways, Mr. Obama is wheezing across the finish line after making a strong start: He has won only 6 of the 13 Democratic contests held since March 4, drawing 6.1 million votes, compared with 6.6 million for Mrs. Clinton. Still, Mrs. Clinton’s associates said she seemed to have come to terms over the last week with the near-certainty that she will not win the nomination, even as she continues to assert, with what one associate described as subdued resignation, that the Democrats are making a mistake in sending Mr. Obama up against Senator John McCain.

Mrs. Clinton has kept her counsel about what she might do to draw her campaign to a close and when she might do it. Her associates said the most likely outcome is that she will end her bid with a speech, probably back home in New York, in which she would endorse Mr. Obama. Mrs. Clinton herself suggested on Friday that the contest will end sometime next week....

***

Mr. Obama’s advisers said he would make no formal statement of victory, with the assumption that the moment would be elaborately marked by the media....

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/01/us/politics/01dems.html?hp=&pagewanted=all

[TwilightGardener]

1. Yeah, the "kitchen sink" on Obama's chest, from the Clintons, the GOP and the media

WOULD make any candidate "wheeze" toward the finish line. Jesus. Like he's at fault for the nonstop and meritless bashing, Pastorbation, slanted ambush debates...

[DeepModem Mom]

2. OTOH, what I took from this NYT article is that Obama has won, and HRC will say so...

maybe in the next few days. There is a nod to the fact that he did better in earlier contests than in later ones. But he has won. He's won now. The NYT's saying so is something like Russert saying so, in the minds of folks beyond DU.

[DCKit]

3. Yes, but I found the tone unnecessarily offensive.

Their agenda is showing.

[Bob Dobbs]

4. If Obama is wheezing, what does that make grandpa's condition?

grandpa gop'er is on life support.