It’s Time For Hillary To Quit!

Barack Obama celebrates with wife Michelle
Sen. Barack Obama won North Carolina’s presidential primary by a wide margin Tuesday, while Sen. Hillary Clinton narrowly won in Indiana.

“We now know who the Democratic nominee is going to be,” NBC’s Tim Russert declared on MSNBC last evening. The Meet the Press host was referring to Barack Obama, who won a decisive victory over Hillary Rodham Clinton in today’s North Carolina primary and is within just a few percentage points of her in the Indiana vote count.

The network’s Chuck Todd ran through the math and calculated that Obama now leads Clinton in the “popular vote” by about 710,000 — and by 200,000 if the disputed primaries in Florida and Michigan are counted. He also leads by about 160 Democratic convention delegates, Todd said.

Obama, according to Todd, can now make the case “that no matter how you do the math, I’m still ahead.”

The Politico’s Ben Smith reports that Obama campaign strategist David Axelrod said this evening that the campaign is going to spend some time over the next few weeks campaigning in states that will be critical in the fall election. “I don’t think we are doing to spend our time solely in primary states,” Axelrod said. There are six primaries left on the Democratic calender; in West Virginia, Kentucky, Oregon, Puerto Rico, Montana and South Dakota.

Barack Obama is 200 delegates away from the nomination, two weeks after a decisive defeat in Pennsylvania. Last night Obama sounded increasingly like he was looking forward to the fall campaign.

In a raucous rally in Raleigh, N.C., he congratulated Clinton on what he said “appears to be” a win in Indiana.

But he told the crowd, “Tonight we stand less than 200 delegates away from winning the Democratic nomination for president of the United States.”

“This primary season may not be over, but when it is, we will have to remember who we are as Democrats,” he said, “because we all agree that at this defining moment in history — a moment when we’re facing two wars, an economy in turmoil, a planet in peril — we can’t afford to give John McCain the chance to serve out George Bush’s third term.”

| …More Barack TV |

MEANWHILE: Clinton vowed at a late-night rally in Indianapolis that her campaign would continue at “full speed” — then made an appeal for money to fight on in the face of a fund-raising disadvantage.

Despite the uncertainty of the outcome in Indiana, Clinton staked a claim to victory there.

“Not too long ago, my opponent made a prediction,” she said at the rally, joined by her husband, Bill, his face sunburned after hours spent campaigning in small-town North Carolina, and their daughter, Chelsea. “I would win Pennsylvania, he would win North Carolina and Indiana would be the tie-breaker.

“Well, tonight we’ve come from behind, we’ve broken the tie, and thanks to you it’s full speed on to the White House.”

Report: Adopted From USAToday.com | MSNBC.com