Berkeley Bubble

Following Obama’s remarkable victory in North Carolina and near-win in Indiana, the media narrative today is clear–Obama is close to wrapping up the Democratic nomination.

George Stephanopolous said this morning on GMA that the “Fight is over,” following comments last night from Tim Russert proclaiming that Obama was the nominee.

As the NYT notes today–Obama now has a virtually insurmountable lead in the pledged delegates total, the popular vote, he’s won the most states, and will soon take over the superdelegate lead over the next two weeks.

Obama now leads in delegates by a margin of 1851 to 1697–so he’s only 174 delegates away from the nomination total of 2025. Of course, today the Clinton campaign is suddenly moving the goalposts again, claiming that the illegal elections held in Florida and Michigan must count and that the real total is 2209. I’ve been saying for weeks now on this blog that this campaign was over following Obama’s wins in February (and today a Clinton official admitted as much). But with Obama’s win in the “big” state (10th largest state in the Union) of North Carolina and virtual tie in Indiana, the pundits, the party elders, and yes, Clinton campaign officials are now coming around to the truth–we now know that Barack Obama will be the Democratic nominee for president in 2008.

Update: Barack Obama has picked up four superdelegates today, as noted here and here. This means that Obama is only 169 delegates away from securing the nomination. Expect many more supers to announce in the coming days for Barack.
What’s more–Obama is just 33 delegates away from capturing an absolute majority of all delegates.