Quotes From Around Yon Blogosphere

Even with her decisive victory in the Puerto Rican primary Sunday, by some estimates Sen. Hillary Clinton still needs to win more than 80% of the remaining superdelegates to have a prayer of winning the nomination. That is, of course, if superdelegates who’ve already publicly endorsed Sen. Barack Obama stick with their pick. On a brief press conference held aboard her campaign plane Sunday night, Sen. Clinton hinted that options remain for superdelegates, even those that have already endorsed her rival.

"One thing about superdelegates is they can change their minds," Clinton told a gaggle of reporters in the aisle of the plane. . . . "I think it's only now that we're finishing these contests that people are going to actually reflect on who is our stronger candidate. And I believe I am. And I'm going to make that case," Clinton said.

-- MATT PHILLIPS

This is an incredibly important election. Our country is facing unusually serious challenges. And the choice between the two candidates is unusually stark. Obama and McCain differ on almost everything: the conduct of the war, foreign policy, the economy, health care, the works. This is a choice we should take very seriously, and make on the best possible grounds, after thinking as clearly and carefully as we can.

Ferraro's imagined Reagan Democrats cannot do that. Whatever Obama says, they will see him through the prism of their fears. There is no assurance he can give them, and nothing he can say that they will not be able to hear as threatening to leave them behind. (Really: anyone who can hear what Obama said in his South Carolina speech as "telling them that their time has passed" can project race onto anything.) There is nothing Obama can say that can reach them. And that is true just because he is black.

-- HILZOY

. . . As for the New Math, the new magic number will be 2,117 or 2,118 (when Donna Edwards is elected, it will change the math slightly). Obama now has 2,053 delegates and so is 64 delegates short of the nomination. He will win approximately 42 delegates from the remaining three contests. So, I think we can say with confidence that he needs 20-22 superdelegates out of the remaining 205 superdelegates. In reality, between not yet awarded add-on delegates, Edwards delegates, the Pelosi delegates that will go to the winner of the pledged delegate war, Rahm Emanuel, Jim Clyburn, Donna Brazille, etc., Obama already has more than the 20-22 delegates he needs. He is now assured of winning the nomination and he can probably make that announcement official after the polls close in Montana on Tuesday night.

Let's all take a moment to celebrate.

-- BOOMAN

Obama’s campaign knew that they would have to cut ties with his controversial church sooner or later. Fair or no, the campaign clearly recognized that the antics at Trinity United were a gaping PR wound that wouldn’t heal as long as he didn’t make a clear break. Like Dunkin’ Donuts in the idiotic Rachel Ray controversy, the Obama campaign really wants to spend its finite resources talking about something else.

-- TIM F.

Mr. Rove is to the McCain campaign what Bill Clinton was to the Hillary Clinton campaign: a ubiquitous albatross dispensing dubious, out-of-date political advice and constantly upstaging the candidate he ostensibly supports. Like Mr. Clinton, Mr. Rove is a camera hog who puts his need to vehemently defend his own administration's record ahead of all else. So what if he’s under subpoena by the House Judiciary Committee? He doesn't care if he reminds voters of administration scandals or of Mr. McCain's association with Iraq any more than Mr. Clinton cared if he reminded voters of his continued ties to suspect financial donors and the prospect of an out-of-control co-presidency.

-- FRANK RICH

Photograph by Doug Mills/The New York Times