Analysis: As Obama nears finish line, can Clinton rebound in time? - CNN.com

NEW YORK (CNN) — Barack Obama took a major step Tuesday toward securing the Democratic presidential nomination. Not only did he score a convincing victory in North Carolina; but by drawing to a virtual tie in Indiana he made an already difficult path for Hillary Clinton to the presidential nomination significantly more challenging.

After Tuesday night, Obama took a larger lead in pledged delegates as well as the overall popular vote.

But Clinton vowed to soldier on, telling supporters at a rally in Indiana “it’s full-speed on to the White House.”

Obama wakes up this morning with a larger lead in pledged delegates as well as the overall popular vote. For Clinton, time for a rebound may be slipping away.

The finish line is 2025 delegates, and with North Carolina and Indiana in the rear view mirror, only six contests and 217 pledged delegates remain. Over the next month, in addition to wooing the dwindling pool of voters who have yet to weigh in on this nomination battle, Clinton and Obama aides tell CNN they are actively pursuing the roughly 280 uncommitted super delegates.

Since Hillary needs to gather some 80% of the remaining delegates in order to secure the nomination, one really could say, “It’s over!”

C’mon Hillary … get out now with some dignity still intact … and let the Party begin to heal, so we can focus on defeating McCain in November.

Indiana nuns lacking ID denied at poll by fellow sister

About 12 Indiana nuns were turned away Tuesday from a polling place by a fellow bride of Christ because they didn’t have state or federal identification bearing a photograph.

Sister Julie McGuire said she was forced to turn away her fellow sisters at Saint Mary’s Convent in South Bend, across the street from the University of Notre Dame, because they had been told earlier that they would need such an ID to vote.

The nuns, all in their 80s or 90s, didn’t get one but came to the precinct anyway.

“One came down this morning, and she was 98, and she said, ‘I don’t want to go do that,’” Sister McGuire said. Some showed up with outdated passports. None of them drives.

They weren’t given provisional ballots because it would be impossible to get them to a motor vehicle branch and back in the 10-day time frame allotted by the law, Sister McGuire said. “You have to remember that some of these ladies don’t walk well. They’re in wheelchairs or on walkers or electric carts.”

So essentially, as the devout Catholic justice Antonin Scalia indicated, preventing nuns from voting is a “minimal and justified” consequence of a law intended to stop voter fraud.

Since the original opinion did not examine an “as applied” challenge by actual voters who show the law disadvantaged their right to vote, here’s hoping that the law will be challenged again; if not by the nuns, then by others who may also have been turned away.

CNN Political Ticker: All politics, all the time - Blogs from CNN.com

(CNN) – How big of an impact did Rush Limbaugh’s ‘Operation Chaos’ have in Indiana? Did GOP voters really cross over to create havoc in the Democratic primary by voting for Hillary Clinton, as he’d asked his listeners to do?

Roughly one in ten of the state’s Democratic primary voters were Republican — and that group did vote for Hillary Clinton, 53 to 47 percent over Barack Obama. Independents — who made up about a quarter of the electorate — voted for Obama, 53 to 47 percent.

For whatever reason, self-identified conservative voters did overwhelmingly support Clinton – two out of three cast their votes for the New York senator.

Since many reports show that 80% of the crossover conservative voters intend to vote for McCain in November, this smacks overwhelmingly of election fraud by Rush Limbaugh, but also shows that Clinton can’t win without the kind of help that the Democratic Party doesn’t need nor want.

Obama wins by an landslide in North Carolina. He has a significant lead in the popular vote. He has a significant lead in the delegate count. Hang it up, Hillary! You’re done, and you’re only helping John McCain.