It's over now. And Indiana, in the national spotlight in presidential politics for the first time in four decades, cast the telling votes in the final, decisive contest.
Barack Obama now is the almost certain Democratic nominee for president. Hillary Clinton cannot catch him without something as unexpected and startling as discovery that Obama is a secret Rush Limbaugh agent.
It was actually the combination of Clinton's underperformance here and Obama's strong showing in North Carolina that probably marked the de facto end of the Democratic primary. And that's all misleading anyway, like saying so-and-so won or lost the ballgame with that last shot. That shot gets more notice, but it counts no more or less toward the victory or loss than all the other shots throughout the whole game.
It is right, though, that Obama is the almost certain nominee, and that is scary to contemplate. It means that -- and I hestitate to even write this down -- for the first time in 20 years, there won't be a Bush or a Clinton in the White House. Are we really ready for that?
