"Who goes out and asks for the ball from the pitcher?"

I favor MSNBC coverage over all the other cable networks, but I mean it when I say it: Chris Matthews should be required to present three authorizing signatures each and every time he wants to use a sports metaphor.

Nevertheless, as Hillary Clinton so lawyerly put it, they broke the tie in Indiana tonight. She canceled her talk show appearances for the morning—indeed, all her public appearances for the day—and her campaign asks the commentariot to take a deep breath and not rush Sen. Clinton. I don't think there's any worry on that score. This week and next week promise a leisurely parade of superdelegates announcing for Obama to the drumbeat of media outlets recognizing Obama as the Democratic nominee.

Everyone who prognosticated that nothing changed tonight got the election basically right: Though it seems at this hour that Obama wins Indiana by a hair, it doesn't make for a substantial improvement in allocated delegates over the small number that Clinton was predicted to net. Obama won North Carolina like he was supposed to.

The thing that changed was that Clinton dropped the front-runner façade. She couldn't maintain it. She declared the victory she could, furiously backpedaling on the meaning of the contest and canceling her next steps. Oh, and it looks as though she loaned her campaign money to get to this point—and this performance isn't going to make the crowds throw money. She even said that she would work for the Democratic nominee, no matter the results.

What about this signal is going to convince a majority of undecided superdelegates who, for whatever reason, have all along abstained from pledging their support to the candidate?

She'll have the time she needs to tour West Virginia and Kentucky and work out the post-active phase of her campaign; no one will rush her through that. But Barack Obama will be named the Democratic nominee for President.