It's As Good As Over! (updated)

Absent a sudden revelation that Barack Obama is the illegitimate child of Fidel Castro, brainwashed in Cuba and sent to Hawaii to grow up to be President of the United States and stage a communist coup, it's now all but certain that Barack Obama is the Democratic presidential nominee.

It's now 2 hours and 15 minutes since the Indiana polls closed and 1 hour and 45 minutes since the North Carolina polls closed. Both CNN and MSNBC called North Carolina for Barack as soon as the polls closed, meaning exit polls showed a large lead, probably better than 10 points. Although Hillary is ahead in the smaller state of Indiana, the fact that the networks have still not called the state indicates that the margin is closer than in North Carolina.
UPDATE: WITH 99% OF THE PRECINCTS REPORTING, BARACK HAS WON NORTH CAROLINA BY 232,757 VOTE,S A 14% MARGIN. IN INDIANA, HILLARY SQUEAKED OUT A 22,382 VOTE WIN, LESS THAN A 2% MARGIN. IN ADDITION TO INCREASING HIS DELEGATE LEAD, BARACK INCREASED HIS POPULAR VOTE LEAD BY OVER 200,000. HILLARY CLINTON HAS CANCELLED ALL OF HER MORNING TV AND PRESS APPEARANCES.

It's now clear that Barack will end the evening increasing his popular vote lead and delegate lead over Hillary. It is mathematically all but certain that no matter what happens in the handful of remaining contests, Barack will end up in the first week in June having won the most elected delegates, the most votes and the most states. Absent an extraordinary scandal, it is now all but inconceivable that the superdelegates would then take the nomination away from Barack and hand it to Hillary. It is equally unlikely that the Democratic Party would exercise the so-called "nuclear" option and apportion delegates to Florida and Michigan in a way that would change the outcome.

Hillary's only remaining argument to the superdelegates is a coded appeal to race -- Obama is unelectable because he can't win the votes of enough white people. The truth, however, is that Bill Clinton won the White House with only about 40% of the white vote nationally, Obama has won tens of millions of white votes in the course of the primaries and caucuses, and just because a white voter chose Hillary over Obama in the primaries, it doesn't mean that voter won't choose Obama over McCain in the general election. Obama may have work to do in improving his percentage of white working class voters. But the Democratic Party is not about to take the nomination away from the black guy who won the majority of the delegate vote and the popular vote to give it to the white woman. That would destroy the Democratic Party for a generation.

It may still take until the beginning of June for Barack's to officially earn the 2025 delegates needed to secure the nomination. Between now and then, we can expect superdelegates to commit to Barack in increasing numbers.

But the task now is for the Democratic party to unite around its presumptive nominee -- Barack Obama -- and get ready to take on McSame in the fall.

Read more reactions from Huffington Post bloggers to the Indiana and North Carolina primary results