Sen. Barack Obama has secured enough delegates to clinch the Democratic nomination for President, beating Sen. Hillary Clinton in the five-month-long race. Even if he loses today’s primaries, in South Dakota and Montana, he will still have enough committed delegates to declare himself the winning candidate, according to the Associated Press count (which is the count the Hillary campaign has been using).

Get all the details after the jump!

From the article:

Barack Obama effectively clinched the Democratic presidential nomination Tuesday, based on an Associated Press tally of convention delegates, becoming the first black candidate ever to lead his party into a fall campaign for the White House. Campaigning on an insistent call for change, Obama outlasted former first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton in a historic race that sparked record turnout in primary after primary, yet exposed deep racial divisions within the party.

The AP tally was based on public commitments from delegates as well as more than a dozen private commitments. It also included a minimum number of delegates Obama was guaranteed even if he lost the final two primaries in South Dakota and Montana later in the day.

This comes after a day and a half of political buzz that Sen. Clinton will concede tonight or tomorrow, after the South Dakota and Montana primaries tally their votes. But this has been only slightly more than speculation, with contrasting reports coming out of the Clinton campaign. However, with this new evidence against her arguments to fight on, a concession speech may be imminent this evening.

Regardless of what they say, math doesn’t lie. After tonight, Sen. Obama will have secured enough pledged delegates and superdelegates to meet the 2,118 delegates needed to secure the nomination. In addition, Sen. Obama has won the most state contests and popular votes, giving Sen. Clinton virtually no room to argue for her superiority.

She may keep it going, just to twist the knife a little more. But for now, we can all take a much-need break from this crap.

(Image source:SleepyJohn.com)