NUMBERS THAT MEAN MORE THAN WHATEVER NUMBERS EMERGE FROM TOMORROW'S PRIMARY

From the ABC/Washington Post poll

In general election matchups, Obama leads McCain by 51-44 percent, similar to the last two ABC News/Washington Post polls. Standings in a Clinton vs. McCain race are 49-46 percent, again roughly similar to previous ABC News/Washington Post results.

Obama is electable -- this poll says more so than Clinton. He's electable and he's ready, and he's going to emerge with more delegates. So can we please just get on with general election?

(And yes, I know -- I'm quoting a poll that also finds most Democrats unconcerned with the length of the campaign. I don't care. Candidates routinely exit races when they technically can still win but have no reasonable chance of success. They don't hold a referendum before deciding to drop out.)

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Oh, I'm sorry, I forgot: we have to let all 50 states have their say, don't we? (Even though that rarely happens in any other primary season.) In this week's New Yorker, Hendrik Hertzberg responds to that:

"It would be a little strange to have a nominee chosen by forty-eight states," [Hillary Clinton] said, and her husband, in an e-mail to supporters, added, "People want Hillary to stay in this race until every last voter has a say." (Never mind that in January the Clintons' chamberlain, Terry McAuliffe, had called the race "a twenty-seven-state contest" that would be "over on February 5th.")

Ouch.