This will probably be the week when Barack Obama finally clinches the Democratic nomination for this year’s US presidential election. The topsy-turvy contest has been humbling for the punditocracy, but I remain willing to predict one reaction to Mr Obama’s slow-motion victory with certainty – many of Senator Hillary Clinton’s supporters will denounce the result as evidence that the US remains deeply sexist.

The “iron my shirt” heckler who confronted Mrs Clinton in New Hampshire will be recalled, as will the infamous “Hillary Nutcracker” whose black pant-suit-clad thighs are “promised to crack even the toughest nut” and which you can buy on Amazon for $19.67. The assertion by Gloria Steinem, the feminist, that “gender is probably the most restricting force in American life” will be cited as prescient, and former vice-presidential candidate Geraldine Ferraro’s warning that Mrs Clinton’s treatment “sends a direct signal that sexism is OK in all of society” will become a rallying cry for her aggrieved backers.