[Rex Babin, Sacramento Bee] Update: Senator Barrack Obama appears to have split the Pennsylvania delegation with Senator Clinton, thus insuring him an almost insurmountable lead in pledged delegates going into the Democratic Convention in Denver. Near total results show Senator Clinton with a lead of 55% to 45%. Political pundits earlier declared Senator Clinton needed to ace Obama in Pennsylvania with a double digit victory to keep her candidacy viable. Assuming Senator Clinton nets 14-16 delegates from her win in Pennsylvania, the Indiana delegation is evenly split, and Senator Obama wins a similar number of net delegates from North Carolina, Senator Clinton must win 80% or more of the delegates in the remaining primaries (West Virginia, Kentucky, Oregon, Puerto Rico, Montana, South Dakota) to overcome Obama's 150 pledged delegate lead. Obama is expected to win Oregon with 52 delegates at stake. With that assumption factored in only 169 delegates remain contested (Guam has 4 delegates). Yes, Hillary it is possible, but so is a huge asteroid hitting Earth between now and November 4th.
More: The question on pundits' minds is, why can Obama "not put Hillary away"? The answer is not "Marxist dialectic" Pat, but boils down once again to America's original sin--racism. About one in five Pennsylvania voters said the race of the candidates was among the top factors in deciding how to vote, according to exit polls, and white voters who cited race supported Clinton over Obama by a 3-to-1 margin. It is sad to think that older blue collar Americans have such a problem with race that they are willing to view a white woman who has never owned a business or run any government as being more qualified to head the world's largest federal bureaucracy and military machine.