It's over

Yeah, yeah, you've heard it before.  The insurmountable pledged delegate deficit, the dried up finances, the Bosnia flap, etc. etc.  But, aside from all of that, Hillary Clinton had a mathematical chance at winning the nomination if the superdelegates were willing to give her the nomination (i.e., thwart the popular will and trigger intra-party civil war).

But, then I read this over at WaPo's "The Fix":

By appearing as magnanimous as possible toward Clinton, Obama is seeking to reassure these superdelegates that everything is going to be all right in the end. Meanwhile, his campaign in exerting ramped up pressure behind the scenes for superdelegates who are with Obama privately to be with him publicly.

That's right folks.  It's just a matter of convincing private Obama fans to come out publicly.  In fact, that's exactly what's happening now:

The recent endorsements of Sen. Barack Obama's presidential campaign by freshmen Sens. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and Bob Casey, Jr. (D-Pa.), as well as the rumored support for the Illinois Senator by the entire North Carolina Democratic House delegation, represent a new stage in the protracted fight for the Democratic nomination as Obama's campaign seeks to draw out its superdelegate support in hopes of bringing an end to the race.

Klobuchar made clear in her endorsement of Obama -- announced a on a conference call this morning with Obama campaign manager David Plouffe -- that she had been leaning his way since her state's Feb. 5 caucuses, which were won overwhelmingly by Obama.

"For me, I had really after our caucuses started to know which way I was headed but out of respect for both candidates I had delayed that," she said.

It's not hard to read between the lines in that statement; Klobuchar had likely made clear to Obama more than a month ago that she would be for him but held off in hopes that the race would resolve itself before she came out for Barack. She said as much on the call, noting that she had hoped "there was a time I could come in where I could bring our party together."

Remember the 50-superdelegates-in-his-back-pocket comment?  I think this is what Brokaw was mis-referencing.  It's not that Obama can just whip these delegates out at any time, as the "back pocket" analogy implies.  It's more like 50 frightened groundhogs, and the campaign just has to coax them out one by one, convince them not be afraid of Clinton's shadow, and help reveal how "over" this race has become.