AP has called the race. They have used 11 delegates expected today to be awarded to Obama from primaries, which is a little premature in my view (I mean, why not wait until after the election like we are supposed to). It also includes, and this is very interesting. 16 super delegates that have told AP they are going to throw their lot in with Obama but who have not yet done so. The existence of a bunch of such super delegates was heavily hinted at by various media mucky mucks over the last couple of days.The following is from the AP report. My Snark added where appropriate (according to me).

Clinton stood ready to concede that her rival had amassed the delegates needed to triumph, according to officials in her campaign. They stressed that the New York senator did not intend to suspend or end her candidacy in a speech Tuesday night in New York. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they had not been authorized to divulge her plans.Obama’s triumph was fashioned on prodigious fundraising, meticulous organizing and his theme of change aimed at an electorate opposed to the Iraq war and worried about the economy — all harnessed to his own innate gifts as a campaigner.

Innate gift. Native ability. How did a Black Guy get so good at this?

With her husband’s two-White House terms as a backdrop, Clinton campaigned for months as the candidate of experience, a former first lady and second-term senator ready, she said, to take over on Day One.But after a year on the campaign trail, Obama won the kickoff Iowa caucuses on Jan. 3, and the freshman senator became something of an overnight political phenomenon.”We came together as Democrats, as Republicans and independents, to stand up and say we are one nation, we are one people and our time for change has come,” he said that night in Des Moines.A video produced by Will I. Am and built around Obama’s “Yes, we can” rallying cry quickly went viral. It drew its one millionth hit within a few days of being posted.

I honestly think Obama Girl may have had a bigger impact.

As the strongest female presidential candidate in history, Clinton drew large, enthusiastic audiences. Yet Obama’s were bigger still. One audience, in Dallas, famously cheered when he blew his nose on stage; a crowd of 75,000 turned out in Portland, Ore., the weekend before the state’s May 20 primary.

Hey, who says the guy does not have a set of well articulated issue statements?!?!?

The former first lady countered Obama’s Iowa victory with an upset five days later in New Hampshire that set the stage for a campaign marathon as competitive as any in the last generation.”Over the last week I listened to you, and in the process I found my own voice,” she told supporters who had saved her candidacy from an early demise.

I think this was an important point in the campaign. All indications are that the Clinton campain was oriented towards an early victory followed by a period of watching the Republicans slug it out. Instead, the reverse would be the case. We really did see the Clinton campaign remake its strategy a couple of times. The difference between one campaign doing that and the other not doing that turns out to be a couple of hundred delegates….. (perhaps).

In defeat, Obama’s aides concluded they had committed a cardinal sin of New Hampshire politics, forsaking small, intimate events in favor of speeches to large audiences inviting them to ratify Iowa’s choice.It was not a mistake they made again — which helped explain Obama’s later outings to bowling alleys, backyard basketball hoops and American Legion halls in the heartland.

However, they did make the mistake at the level of states. They may not have written off some bowling alley in North Carolina, but they did write off West Virginia.

Clinton conceded nothing, memorably knocking back a shot of Crown Royal whiskey at a bar in Indiana, recalling that her grandfather had taught her to use a shotgun, and driving in a pickup to a gas station in South Bend, Ind., to emphasize her support for a summertime suspension of the federal gasoline tax.As other rivals quickly fell away in winter, the strongest black candidate in history and the strongest female White House contender traded victories on Super Tuesday, the Feb. 5 series of primaries and caucuses across 21 states and American Samoa that once seemed likely to settle the nomination.But Clinton had a problem that Obama exploited, and he scored a coup she could not answer.Pressed for cash, the former first lady ran noncompetitive campaigns in several Super Tuesday caucus states, allowing her rival to run up his delegate totals.

To the extent that this is true, it is interesting that it does often come down to money.

At the same time, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., endorsed the young senator in terms that summoned memories of his slain brothers while seeking to turn the page on the Clinton era.In a reference that likened former President Clinton to Harry Truman: “There was another time, when another young candidate was running for president and challenging America to cross a new frontier. He faced criticism from the preceding Democratic president, who was widely respected in the party.”Merely by surviving Super Tuesday, Obama exceeded expectations.But he did more than survive, emerging with a lead in delegates that he never relinquished, and proceeded to run off a string of 11 straight victories.Clinton saved her candidacy once more with primary victories in Ohio and Texas on March 4, beginning a stretch in which she won primaries in six of the final nine states on the calendar, as well as in Puerto Rico.It was a strong run, providing glimpses of what might have been for the one-time front-runner.

This is about the point in time that the campaign started to look like a post-nasty-divorce custody argument. In other words, the campaign got gendered, more genderized than racialized, as it turns out.

Obama’s frustration showed at the Jan. 21 debate, when he accused the former president in absentia of uttering a series of distortions.”I’m here. He’s not,” the former first lady snapped.”Well, I can’t tell who I’m running against sometimes,” Obama countered.There were relatively few policy differences. Clinton accused Obama of backing a health care plan that would leave millions out, and the two clashed repeatedly over trade.Yet race, religion, region and gender became political fault lines as the two campaigned from coast to coast.

I missed the part about religion being a fault line. It was more of a stupid gaff and a spectacular display of not understanding anything by the press.

Along the way, Obama showed an ability to weather the inevitable controversies, most notably one caused by the incendiary rhetoric of his former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright.At first, Obama said he could not break with his longtime spiritual adviser. Then, when Wright spoke out anew, Obama reversed course and denounced him strongly.Clinton struggled with self-inflicted wounds. Most prominently, she claimed to have come under sniper fire as first lady more than a decade earlier while paying a visit to Bosnia.Instead, videotapes showed her receiving a gift of flowers from a young girl who greeted her plane.

And so on.source

Have you read the breakthrough novel of the year? When you are done with that, try:

In Search of Sungudogo by Greg Laden, now in Kindle or Paperback
*Please note:
Links to books and other items on this page and elsewhere on Greg Ladens' blog may send you to Amazon, where I am a registered affiliate. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases, which helps to fund this site.