The Gods Have Spoken

...and Hillary is finished.

At the stroke of midnight last night -- that fateful hour that saw Cinderella's coach revert to pumpkinhood -- the professional pundit class on TV and the internet united behind their leading voice, Tim Russert (something of a pumpkin himself) and declared Hillary's candidacy dead as a smoked oyster.

“We now know who the Democratic nominee’s going to be, and no one’s going to dispute it,” Russert declared on MSNBC, a few minutes after the witching hour. “Those closest to her will give her a hard-headed analysis, and if they lay it all out, they’ll say: ‘What is the rationale? What do we say to the undeclared super delegates tomorrow? Why do we tell them you’re staying in the race?’ And tonight, there’s no good answer for that.” (NY Times coverage.)

Russert's verdict was soon echoed by commentators all across the political spectrum: Drudge, Fox News, Daily Kos, etc. It's unanimous. No matter what happens in West Virginia next week, this is the end of the line for the Clintons.

Thanks, Gods. Now Obama, the best political speaker to come along since Reagan, has all summer and the short fall season to take McCain apart as if he was Mr. Potato Head. And he will, with gusto. And we won't have to listen to any more of Hillary's raspy, file-voiced monologues about how great her qualifications are.