Update: Fox News calls South Dakota for Hillary. She won it big -- by 12 points.

Polls are closed in South Dakota. Hillary is leading Obama. It looks like she will take the state.

What did it for her? Older voters, women voters and rural voters.

I'll be following the election returns here.

On NBC, Howard Fineman is reporting (FAIR WARNING - Fineman often is wrong on these things) that the Clinton and Obama camps are discussing having Obama offer Clinton the VP slot and her rejecting it because she does not want it and that it would be an important sign of public respect and unity.

If this is true, it heartens me to think that Obama realizes that he must show respect to Hillary Clinton and her supporters. I hope he actually does respect her. He should. As she should respect him.

We'll see if any of this is actually true, but an interesting tidbit.

By Big Tent Democrat

Whether you are elated, angry or sad tonight, do us all a favor and show each other and our candidates a little respect.

Personal attacks, name-calling and insults are not welcome here. They will be deleted as fast as we spot them.

Traffic is high, our servers are maxed. Don't be a blogclogger. Share your opinion, your joy or your anguish -- we want to hear it -- but do so respectfully and with consideration for those who hold opposing points of view.

If you can't do that, please comment at another site.

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NBC's terrible trio of Olbermann, Russert and Matthews report that Obama is none too pleased that the Media is STILL obsessed with Hillary Clinton. But here's the funny part - the Media's behavior is ALSO Hillary Clinton's fault.

They are truly incorrigible. It strikes me that Clinton as VP would be perfect for NBC. They could keep their programming exactly the same. Olbermann could continue to do his half an hour of negative news about Clinton, Oddball, Worst Person and a lame comedian. Easy.

Nice post from Barb at daily kos.

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Update: Fox exit polls are here.

65 percent of seniors, 57 percent of women, 61 percent of those making less than $50,000 a year and 56 percent of rural voters.

Obama is doing better in Montana.

In Montana, Obama is winning all of his usual voting blocs, and some of Clinton’s. He is winning with women, lower income voters, gun owners and rural voters.

But seniors in MT voted for Hillary by a very large margin.

Update: Fox Exit Polls: Hillary's lead is from women over 60. I guess that means Hillary has won South Dakota. Other results: Obama's church hurt him. It also says on Montana, that Obama's lead is from men. [More...]

Barack Obama is moments away from reaching the 2,118 pledged delegate threshold. CNN says he is 12 away.

The media has declared him the Democratic nominee and is beginning the post-mortem.

Will Hillary agree he has won the nomination and suspend her campaign tonight after all?

I'll be live-blogging her speech.

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This is an Open Thread. But it is also an explanation for why I feel Barack Obama should give Hillary Clinton some space tonight.

Barack Obama will be the Democratic nominee for President. Yes, this is historic - an African American will be our nominee. It is something for our Party to be proud of. But a different dream will die tonight, and I would hope Obama and his supporters will be sensitive to it. The chance of a woman being our Presidential nominee in this election will die tonight. For many women, this is a hard night because of it.

The night of the first debate when only Obama and Clinton were left standing was one of our proudest. And it was not just because of Barack Obama. It was also because of Hillary Clinton. Remember women and fathers of daughters (like me) who still must dream of the day when a woman will be our Presidential nominee. That dream must NEVER die. I would hope Obama and his supporters will have a thought about that tonight. Not just the history made. But the history NOT made.

Speaking for me only

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4:45 pm: Terry McCauliffe tells Wolf Blitzer Hillary absolutely will not drop out tonight.

He says he and Hillary are making superdelegate calls. She has more voters than any other candidate in presidential primary history. "We're still going."

Laugh of the segment: Going into a commercial break, Wolf says: "But could the superdelegates still sway her way? Come back and we'll ask our expert, Donna Brazile."

These threads are filling up fast. We need some topical music video suggestions. Ideas?

This is an open thread.

Update: Jon Ausman, whose Florida challenge to the seating of delegates was heard on Saturday, announces is 1/2 superdelegate vote will go to Hillary. Why? He wants a joint ticket and she is the key to winning Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania. Shorter version (mine): Obama can't win those states without her, and the Dems won't win the presidency without them.

CNN is reporting Hillary has told New York lawmakers that she is open to the VP slot.

Now here's the funny part: Suzanne Malveaux reports that the Obama campaign says she is on the "short list" but is concerned that the Clintons haven't been fully vetted.

Could the media do any more today to discourage those in SD and MT from voting? This is their third attempt to tell them their vote doesn't matter, may as well stay home.[More...]

Hillary may be running on empty, but as of now, she's still running.

I predict she will win South Dakota and come within 6 points in Montana.

This is another open thread.

Take the poll below on when the nomination will be decided:

The AP, which still has egg on its face from this morning's false report that Hillary would concede to Obama, does it again.

The AP is sending out a breaking news report, complete with post-mortem analysis, that Obama has reached the magic number and is officially the nominee.

Votes are cast at the convention in August. Superdelegates can change their mind any time before then. If this went to an open convention, even pledged delegates would be released from their pledge after the first vote.

This does not mean it's going to the convention. It means that until one candidate drops out, there can be no winner because the number of delegates that candidate has can change any time until the convention.

Until and unless Hillary Clinton publicly suspends or ends her campaign and concedes that Obama is the nominee, there is no nominee. There is only a statement that if current delegate positions at this moment were frozen in time until August he would be the nominee.

If and when Hillary makes that determination, then Obama will be the nominee. At that point TalkLeft will congratulate him and offer him our support. We're not there yet.

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I have not a clue what to expect from South Dakota and Montana, and will not even venture a guess. But you can give it a shot. I will make one prediction - a lot of people are going to say a lot of nice things about Hillary Clinton tonight.

This is an Open Thread.