Tuesday Morning Open Thread

Good morning.

Big day today. Obama will basically lock up the nomination today by securing the majority of pledged delegates. We have a nominee. Okay, we've had one for awhile, but today's votes give Obama's nomination even more validity.

It's almost stunning when you think back a year -- who would have thought this could really happen? Not the punditry or most of the Democratic brain trust here in DC, that's for sure. We can get so caught up in the numbers, the polls, the exit polls, the delegate count, that we can miss the big picture. Obama winning the Democratic nomination is really an amazing turn of events.

IMPORTANT UPDATE: Polls are open in Kentucky til 6 p.m. local time. (like Indiana, Kentucky has two time zones so all polls won't be closed until 7 p.m. Eastern time. Louisville, for example, is in the Eastern time zone so polls there are open til 6 p.m. Eastern time). Thanks to my pal, DW, in KY for pointing that out.

In Oregon, voters have been voting for weeks -- the whole process is by mail. Voters in Oregon have until 8 P.M. local time (11 P.M.) to return their ballots.

Let's get it started.