Can it really be over?

WASHINGTON - Hillary Rodham Clinton will concede Tuesday night that Barack Obama has the delegates to secure the Democratic nomination, campaign officials said, effectively ending her bid to be the nation's first female president.

Obama is 40 delegates shy of clinching the nomination, but he is widely expected to make up the difference Tuesday with superdelegate support and votes in South Dakota and Montana. Once he reaches the magic number of 2,118, Clinton will acknowledge that he has secured the necessary delegates to be the nominee.

The former first lady will stop short of formally suspending or ending her race in her speech in New York City.

She will pledge to continue to speak out on issues like health care. But for all intents and purposes, the two senior officials said, the campaign is over.

Most campaign staff will be let go and will be paid through June 15, said the officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to divulge her plans.

The advisers said Clinton has made a strategic decision to not formally end her campaign, giving her leverage to negotiate with Obama on various matters including a possible vice presidential nomination for her. She also wants to press him on issues he should focus on in the fall, such as health care.

This can only mean one thing. A deal has been struck. The terms will become manifest over the next few days or weeks, but one thing we can be sure of is that Mrs. Clinton's price will not be cheap.

I continue to hold on to the thought that she will insist on the vice presidency. I know that Michelle Obama hates her and that Barack will not wish to have his presidency take place in Bill Clinton's shadow. However Hillary's position is so strong, having almost half the delegates and a somewhat legitimate argument to make about both the popular vote total and the fact that she was able to carry must-win states like Pennsylvania and California, that she will be able to demand the VP slot or anything else she desires from Obama and expect to get it.

From Clinton's standpoint it would be a good deal in that it would combine her campaign with Obama's and allow him to assume her debt. From Obama's position including Clinton on the ticket has many advantages. One is that it would go far to unify the party. It will be difficult for Hillary's supporters to jump ship and vote for McCain if Hillary's name is on the ballot.

Another advantage for Obama is the Clinton network of contacts, supporters, fundraisers and the accumulation of favors owed after eight years in the White House and a term and a half in the Senate.

Obama brings in the black and upper-middle class educated vote and Hillary brings in the women, blue-collar and Hispanic vote. If you combine the amounts which both the Clinton and Obama campaigns have raised to date the number comes to around 500 million dollars. And together they have the potential to easily match that amount dollar for dollar before November.

What would the general election campaign be like with a unified Democrat party with half a billion dollars in the bank and the mainstream media in their pocket fielding an historic first black/first woman ticket running against an old man with severe anger management issues who has so alienated around 25% of his base that they will never vote for him and who has profound difficulty raising cash look like?

Words like "slaughter" and "massacre" come to mind.