A Presumptive Nominee . . . Although . . .

We made it to the end of the line. With a mix of superdelegates and delegates won during the last two primaries, Barack Obama surpassed the 2,118 threshold, winning enough to lay claim to the Democratic nomination. Rumors swirled around the Clinton campaign about what Hillary's next move would be. As suggested in this space last night, Hillary basically punted: "I will be making no decisions tonight." No, of course not. That put the lie to Terry McCauliff's statement that Hillary would concede once Obama had the numbers. Of course, perhaps he'd already put the lie to that himself, when he introduced her tonight as "the next president of the United States." She claims that whatever her decision is, it will be influenced by her supporters, who were encouraged to go to her Web page to share their thoughts. As the only place to write and send anything on the site at this point is prefaced with:

Be One of 18 Million--Stand With Hillary; I'm with you, Hillary, and I'm proud of everything we're fighting for

I can't say that I expect her to receive too many notes suggesting she put aside her own ambition for the good of the party.

Some of Hillary's previously committed delegates jumped over to Obama today, and I can only assume that those numbers will grow in the next few days. Hillary's suggested that she'd magnanimously accept the VP slot if Obama offered it to her, but the longer she soldiers on, the more irrelevant she'll become, and the less likely she'll be given an opportunity to bite on such a possibility. Of course, McCain hasn't chosen a running mate yet, either. The Bush-McCain campaign (I know, Bush isn't running for anything, but using that description seems to annoy McCain, so why not?) is already using one of her anti-Obama, pro-McCain statements in its advertising. Could McCain-Clinton be the real way to go?