Results: What does last night mean? I'll tell you the obvious line: Kerry goes from being the frontrunner to being the prohibitive nominee. The only thing he needs to fear now is a serious miscalculation or a story involving past naughtiness (either Johnny Chung or some 16-year-old Back Bay nymphet will do the trick). As you both mentioned, Lieberman is gone, Clark is as good as gone, and Dean is a non-factor. Only Edwards got a bounce behind Kerry, for exceeding expectations in SC and OK. That's the conventional wisdom, anyway.

Here's the trick: Clark got nearly as many delegates as Edwards last night, plus Edwards's sole win was, arguably, a walkover on home turf. Why isn't Edwards nearly out of it, as I just said Clark is? I think Edwards has given up. He'll tail along, perhaps hoping for that Kerry misstep, but he knows he's a natural for the VP slot: young, southern, unseasoned but promising. Once the junior candidates have left the stage, with Dean in a sputtering rage on a stage in Guam, hoping they have some delegates, Kerry and Edwards will run a hand-holding, soft-soap final lap into Boston and declare themselves the high-minded ticket.

Sugary? Unless I miss my guess, Boston's gonna rot your teeth.