At last, indeed.

Mainly because I can't take any more of the vultures expert pundit panels endlessly picking apart the lifeless Clinton campaign's hypothetical next move on 24-hour cable news. Consider the dead horse in this horse race good and beaten.

Side note. This is perhaps blasphemous coming from someone who aspires to be part of the news media, but I just adore the fact that Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton pulled one over on the press Thursday night, covert-op style. The Obama press corps boarding his plane and realizing Obama wasn't on board? Awesome. The correspondents camped outside of Clinton's Washington, D.C., home saying things like, "If anyone comes or goes, believe me, we'll know it," and "Hillary's definitely in there." Oops! Hilarious.

Meanwhile, the two opponents tangled in the longest and closest Democratic primary race ever were sipping water in Senator Dianne Feinstein’s living room in Northwest Washington, D.C. Just Clinton and Obama—no press, no staff, nothing. Just an hour long chat. And I like to imagine a chuckle or two over their joint ruse.

This morning, two days later, Sen. Hillary Clinton delivered a laudable concession speech. The talking-heads will promptly and inevitably pick it apart with repetitive rhetorical questions: Why’d she wait? What if she gave such a graceful speech months ago? And let the commentary on whether Clinton was "auditioning" for the VP slot begin... *sigh*

Clinton enthusiastically endorsed Obama, asking her supporters to "work as hard for Barack Obama as you have me." The New York senator also talked about the importance of electing a Democrat, and discussed what she believes are the lost opportunities of the last seven years, such as working toward halting global warming and implementing a universal health care system. "We cannot let this moment slip away," Clinton fervently declared.

"I will work my heart out to make sure Barack Obama is our next president, and I hope all of you will join me in that effort,” she earnestly told the crowd. "The way to continue our fight now to accomplish the goals for which we stand is to take our energy, our passion, our strength and do all we can to help elect Barack Obama, the next president of the United States."

Clinton poignantly discussed the historic nature of both her and Obama's campaigns, and jubilantly referred to the "18 million cracks" in the “highest and hardest glass ceiling.” For Clinton and her backers, this was the end of an extraordinary run. She thanked her supporters for helping her to bring down barriers and making her bid the closest a woman has come to capturing the Democratic presidential nomination.

Her message to the young people? "It would break my heart if in falling short of my goal I in any way discouraged you from pursuing yours...never listen to anyone who says you can't or shouldn't go on."

Can't argue with that, though certainly someone will. Let the circling vultures descend.