The fall campaign is underway. Getting Edwards to endorse has less to do with wrapping up the nomination and more to do with uniting the party for the general election.

Hillary Clinton won big tonight in West Virginia, demonstrating the Obama has plenty of work to do in that part of the country, but she knows it’s over. She argued her case again tonight, but she gave a very classy and gracious speech. She will play this out, at least through next week but probably through all the primaries, but it looks like she will try to make a classy exit.

Obama is already starting to pull ahead of McCain in the polls. If Hillary follows through, supports Obama, gives a classy convention speech and then works hard to unite the party, the Dems will be in great shape in the fall.

Classic quote from a voter in West Virginia:

Like most people in Mingo County, West Virginia, Leonard Simpson is a lifelong Democrat. But given a choice between Barack Obama and John McCain in November, the 67-year-old retired coalminer would vote Republican.

“I heard that Obama is a Muslim and his wife’s an atheist,” said Mr Simpson, drawing on a cigarette outside the fire station in Williamson, a coalmining town of 3,400 people surrounded by lush wooded hillsides.

Tuesday will be an ugly day for Obama. Fortunately, it really doesn’t matter, but it will present yet another opportunity for Hillary to pontificate about race.

Vulgar and cynical. It’s amazing how low Hillary will go. She will go down as one of the most classless politicians in American history.

Obama is gearing up for the fall, as he goes after McCain regarding Hamas.

Obama said he was offended when McCain said last month, “It’s very clear who Hamas wants to be the next president.”

“I think it’s disappointing because John McCain always says, ‘Well, I’m not going to run that kind of politics,’ and then to engage in that kind of smear I think is unfortunate, particularly since my policy on Hamas has been no different than his,” Obama said.

“And so for him to toss out comments like that, I think, is an example of him losing his bearings as he pursues this nomination.”

“Losing his bearings.” I love that line.

Fred Barnes makes a persuasive case.

I’m not a big fan of Rendell, but he would deliver Pennsylvania.

Obama starts the process of party unification in his speech. Hillary makes similar comments, though she took some shots as well.

We’ll see what happens after we get the final numbers in Indiana.

About 25% of the voting is early voting, and polls suggest these voters went big for Obama.

As everyone knows, North Carolina is critical. Obama is supposed to win there, and Hillary’s only real chance is to beat Obama in a state where he is expected to win. She needs to change the dynamic of the race. Obama, on the other hands, wins with a split between Indiana and North Carolina.

If Obama takes care of business in North Carolina, expect to see a significant number of superdelegates annoucing their support for Obama.

I think Hillary miscalculated with the gas tax holiday. Sure, many voters will like this, but I suspect many independents will not. Also, she alienated many members of Congress who oppose this issue and were not happy when she threatened to bring this to a vote. Her “with us or against” us rhetoric rubbed some officials the wrong way. I suspect that if Obama wins North Carolina, Hillary’s pandering on the gas tax will give superdelegates another reason to come out against her.

Both the Senate race and the presidential race are closer than one might expect.

She won’t listen to economists.