The contest for the Democratic nomination has entered a period of suspended reality. The next big vote, in Pennsylvania, is five weeks away – and is unlikely to affect the race much in any case. This agonising, drawn-out sequence of primaries is not in the end going to choose the nominee. When it is over, Barack Obama will lead in elected delegates, but not by enough to settle the thing. The Democratic party’s unelected “superdelegates” will do that, quite possibly not before the party’s convention in August.

The Clinton campaign is already concentrating on making its best case to the superdelegates. For the moment, this means arguing that Hillary Clinton will be the stronger candidate against John McCain in November. Mr Obama and Mrs Clinton are both tied with Mr McCain in national polls – though these do not yet show the fall-out, if any, from the recent surge of interest in the racist demagoguery of Mr Obama’s spiritual mentor, Jeremiah Wright. Also, Mrs Clinton can argue that she has the edge in the swing states that the Democrats have to win.