Now that it seems like we can finally all agree that the nomination has been decided, user dsantos got the ball rolling over in the forum on the next, big, political parlor game. Who is Obama going to pick as his VP?

dsantos offered a suggestion of Arizona governor Janet Napolitano. She certainly has a lot going for her. Executive experience; red state popularity; female reproductive organs. I think it'd be a strong choice that is a non-starter because of the near-certainty that McCain will carry his adopted home state and more glaring flaws in the Obama campaign.

What do you think? The most intersting question right now is whether or not Hillary Clinton will be considered. You should check out avowed Obama cultee Andrew Sullivan's case for a unity ticket if you haven't already. I'll run down a few of the contenders and their pros and cons after the jump.

"Tonight is the night the music died."
-Pat Buchanan

Tim Russert is reporting that Clinton has canceled her public events tomorrow. This interminable mess might be over. The damage is done, it was over two months ago, but even Clinton is going to be unable to twist the current reality.

Votes from Indiana's Lake County (within the Chicago media market and home to Gary, a presumed Obama stronghold) are finally trickling in. Obama could end this tonight.

Although the final arbiter of truth (Fox News) has yet to call the race in Indiana, it seems all but certain that Clinton's current lead will hold and the Democratic primary will continue through June 3.

Obama outperformed the polls (although not necessarily the expectations) in both states and will pad his already insurmountable lead in the popular vote and pledged delegate count with his considerable win in North Carolina. More importantly , he did not provide her the opportunity to declare any sort of momentum that might lead the only voters that still matter, superdelegates, to reconsider subverting democracy.

Unfortunately for Democrats, that isn't going to stop her and her minions from attempting to declare one. Expect to hear from every every Clinton lapdog with access to a microphone that Obama (foolishly) branded Indiana a "tiebreaker." The Clinton campaign now goes into desperation mode. How that will differ from the behavior of the last two month's, I have no idea, but it should terrify not just Obama supporters but Democrats as well.

For the record, I could have written every preceding word a week ago and felt comfortable they would still stand. There was no changing that this ridiculous charade was going to continue with every demographic and political issue long-ago settled.

I assume I'm six or seven scathing MadTV parodies behind the pop culture curve here, but this mash-up of Clinton's defining campaign moment and Tom Cruise's messianic ramblings floored and terrified me.

It puts the self-pitying narcissism at the core of her pivotal pre-New Hampshire allocation of tears in perspective.

Watch it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3enFIPvnFg&NR=1

The Clinton campaign breaks out all their greatest hits in a closing ad taking Obama to task for his foolhardy embrace of "elite opinion" (a loose term that, in this context, correlates roughly with every sentient being who has looked at the gas tax issue for more than thirty seconds).

I'm really going to miss these types of ads for the 30 seconds between the primary and general that it will take McCain to redub them. Hillary as "The Fighter"? Check. Hillary as Tom Joad? Keep it coming. Use of signature Republican tactics and wedge issues? Well, you didn't think a black Marxist was going to lower your taxes did you?

My favorite part is the title and disappointed voice of the narrator. "We used to like you Barack. We really did. But then you had to go all swishy on us and condemn a universally rejected pander masquerading as policy."

See the ad here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eF48jPeZDsQ

Ben Smith at Politico and TNR's Noam Scheiber set the table for today's inevitably headache-inducing primaries in North Carolina and Indiana. Heading into yet another round of supposedly make-or-break contests, the polls and pundits indicate a split decision that prolongs this imaginary stalemate till, at least, June 3 when South Dakota and Montana cast the final votes.

This maddening equilibrium appears likely to evolve only if one of the candidates sweeps the day. If Obama can hold off a late run by Hillary in North Carolina and surge in Indiana, conventional wisdom (and remember that nothing whatsoever has happened counter to it) suggests that Clinton would have little choice but to bow out.

A Clinton sweep, on the other hand, would unleash all sorts of biblical chaos. Crack legal teams will emerge from hiding to wage an epic battle of the dark arts over the Clinton campaign's imminent deployment of the "nuclear option" to seat Florida and Michigan's delegates. You will develop a twitching sensation and mild rash in response to the words "superdelegate" and "electability." Terry McAuliffe will continue his uninterrupted construction of a conflicted, alternate reality, the cumulative weight of which will produce black hole-like conditions that claim the lives of two Fox News producers. In short, the race will continue as is.

Scheiber suggests that strongly pro-Obama early voting will provide a cushion to stave off a Clinton upset in North Carolina. Even if she pulls off what would be an undeniably shocking and meaningful win, Smith points out the unchanged reality:

“On Wednesday, 93.3 percent of the pledged delegates [3,036 of 3,253] will have been allocated,” said Matthew Seyfang, a former Democratic delegate counter. “Barring some truly bizarre turn of events, she has already lost the race for pledged delegates.”