Is the race over?

Last night Obama crossed the threshold of pledged delegates, securing for himself more than half of the delegates available through the various state and territory contests. He is certain to pick up even more with Puerto Rico coming up in 11 days followed by Montana and South Dakota two days later on June 3. Obama now has 1,931 pledged delegates compared to Hillary’s total of 1,759 and the junior senator from Illinois is now only 95 delegates short of the 2,026 needed for the nomination.

The odds are that the DNC rules committee will work out a plan to seat both Michigan and Florida at the convention and will - in all likelihood - divvy up those state’s delegates between the two candidates. Obama has also had a steady stream of previously uncommitted super delegates filling into his numbers trough. More super delegates will probably put him over the top either before or right after June 3.

The DNC already knows where this is heading, judging by the fact they are having discussions with the Obama campaign about sending Paul Tewes, a top Obama campaign aide, to the Democratic National Committee to oversee operations for the Summer and Fall campaign against Sen. John McCain. The only people holding out right now are members of Hillary’s campaign staff. However, Patti Solis Doyle - Hillary’s former campaign manager -has confirmed that she has been having informal conversations with Obama strategist, David Axelrod, about helping Obama secure a victory in November.

During her victory speech last night in Louisville, KY, Hillary Clinton once again signaled that she understands the inevitability of the outcome when she said, “while we continue to go toe-to-toe for this nomination, we do see eye-to-eye when it comes to uniting our party to elect a Democratic president this Fall.” The question is, will Hillary be able to convince her supporters of the importance of rallying around Obama and defeating John McCain? Many of the voters in Appalachia are obviously uncomfortable with the thought of having a black president. Somehow, the campaign is going to have to figure out a way to cut through the generational bias against African-Americans.

Irregardless of Appalachia, I believe Obama could end up having an easy time defeating John McCain in the general election. Contrary to the Clinton campaign’s continuing argument about Hillary winning New York, California,and other big states, Obama is certain to carry those Democratic strongholds in the Fall.

Once the Fall election cycle is in full swing, the DNC and the Obama campaign will start pounding away at John McCain over the economy, the war in Iraq and McCain’s lobbyist-heavy campaign staff. Four of McCain’s staffers had to resign after it was revealed they were actually agents of foreign governments.

Some examples of McCain’s lobbyist buddies. Hiss biggest fund raiser, Tom Loeffler, is a lobbyist for EADS North America, which includes Saudi Arabia among its clients. McCain’s top foreign policy adviser is Randy Scheunemann, founder of Orion Strategies. Orion has represented countries as diverse as Macedonia, Georgia and Taiwan. Peter Madigan is a lobbysist for Griffin, Johnson, Dover & Stewart. He actually represented the United Arab Emirates over their enslavement of underage boys they forced to be as camel jockeys in races.

Charlie Black who still remains on McCain’s staff as his spokesman and senior counsel, who was a lobbyist for BKSH & Associates once represented human rights abusers like the Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos, Zaire dictator Mobuto Sese Seko, Somalia’s Mohamed Siad Barre and Nigeria’s Ibrahim Babangida. In addition, he also represented CNOOC, the Chinese government’s oil industry.

Although all of this information is easy to find, the majority of the public won’t learn about it until the campaign is in full swing. Obama’s policy of refusing PAC and lobbyist money should make it easy for him to attack McCain who seems to be violating some of his own campaign ethics. It should be an interesting Fall.