It’s been a true marathon for the Democratic nomination for President; seems like Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton have been slogging it out for years – actually, come to think of it, they have. Hard to believe that less than six months ago, Hillary Clinton was not simply the de facto Democratic nominee, but plans were being prepared for a Democratic national convention in Denver that would be more of a coronation than anything else.

And why not? Hillary had the so-called White House experience, the name recognition, the backing of the party base, the money, and a clear road to the nomination. Given the relative inexperience and lack of name recognition of her competitors, while not impossible, it was difficult to imagine any scenario where Hillary! wouldn’t be the nominee. (Note to readers: I’ve written enough about her candidacy and its inherent dangers to be a virtual Nostradamus – just search for “Hillary” in the archives.) The race for the nomination was most certainly hers to lose, and to do so would require serious missteps politically on her part – something fairly unlikely given the Clinton’s past political track record.

But her ill-advised comments supporting, then not supporting, then er, somewhat supporting then-NY governor Elliot Spitzer’s plan to give illegals drivers licenses in that first debate began a series of hiccups that cast the first doubts on both her and her campaign’s political chops. When Barack Obama went on the attack, both she and her campaign seemed slow to respond; it was as if they truly believed in her “inevitability” as the nominee. And her campaign wore that badge of inevitability like a cloak and then got stupid, spending an inordinate amount of cash to win the Iowa caucuses when they would have been better off paying it lip-service and allowing Obama to win by default so they could focus on the Super Tuesday primaries.

They say a campaign staff and strategy reflects a candidate’s personality. And the Hillary! campaign wore her personality like a cheap suit in its arrogance and lack of honesty. Having never dreamed that she’d be in a battle for the nomination after Super Tuesday, the campaign clearly had no strategy. It ran out of cash. She used her cheatin’ and philanderin’ husband to make a series of ill-advised attacks on Obama when things got tough, pulled him back when those attacks proved to infuriate African-American voters, then ran both him and daughter Chelsea out to pimp for votes at the last minute – all of which served only to diminish the actual candidate running for President. When Hillary! got caught embellishing a trip she had taken to Bosnia as First Lady, it not only made voters question her honesty, it reminded them of the many problems she and her husband had telling the truth during their White House years.

More than anything, however, what killed Hillary’s campaign in the end was the shocking discovery that the puppy-dog love affair the liberal mainstream media had for her husband didn’t extend to his spouse. Once Obama showed he had the chutzpah to run a solid and effective campaign, all that was left on the Hillary bandwagon were hacks and flacks left over from the Clinton White House years. Obama became the MAN, larger than life itself, and Hillary! was now intruding on the left-wing’s hopes and dreams for the 2008 election. And with her unfavorable ratings never dropping below 48-50 percent, there simply was no room for her to either reinvent herself or go negative on Obama.

Tonight, with North Carolina solidly in the Obama column and Indiana barely in Clinton’s, she finds herself further behind both in terms of the popular vote and delegates. She can talk all she wants about continuing her “fight for the American people” (I’ll hurl later), but you can bet there are more than a few Party faithful pushing behind the scenes to have her concede the nomination. The math is against her more than ever, Obama’s victory in North Carolina proves that he has put (at least for Democrats) the Jeremiah Wright controversy behind him, and the uphill climb she already faced before tonight only gets steeper.

So it’s a time to rejoice. The Hillary! campaign for the Democratic nomination is done like dinner, and I have to admit I’m enjoying every minute of it. Couldn’t happen to a more unlikeable, arrogant, unqualified, and phony (not to mention Socialist) candidate. It was already satisfying to know that a Bush wouldn’t be occupying the White House for another four years – I’ll get to him another time – but knowing that a Clinton won’t be there either is a reason to celebrate.