This week’s Democratic primaries in Indiana and North Carolina may not have been the knockout blow Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama were seeking. But both contenders are now so bloodied that it is time for the referee to stop the fight and declare the winner. By any reasonable yardstick, that is Mr Obama.

The young senator from Illinois won a thumping victory in North Carolina and held Mrs Clinton to a very small advantage in Indiana. Her recovery has now been checked, and was partly illusory anyway: even in the trough of “Bittergate” and with the Rev Jeremiah Wright around his neck like an albatross, Mr Obama was still widening his lead in delegates. He has now demonstrably recovered his élan. Mrs Clinton, by contrast, is beginning to look as though she would need about three-quarters of the remaining uncommitted super-delegates to come within hailing distance of victory. Her campaign, moreover, is running out of money and she is again having to raid her own funds to keep it alive.