The results are still coming in, but last night’s primary was a clear Clinton win.  New Jersey and California were not as close as come polls predicted.  In California, with 96% of the votes in, H. Clinton has 55.9% of the vote (1,848,922 votes, 324 delegates) to Sanders’ 43.1% (1,424,167 votes, 189 delegates).  New Jersey was a blowout, with Clinton getting over 63% to Bernie’s 36%.

So Bernie is done.  He’s lost in every conceivable way, unless he can convince hundreds of superdelegates — like 80% of them — to switch to him over Hillary.  Unless she dies, that’s not going to happen.

The news last night was not so much the primary elections, but the speeches.  Trump, Clinton and Sanders all gave televised speeches last night, although Sanders’ speech was too late for most of the nation.

The contrast between Trump’s speech and Clinton’s was startling.

Last night was “Teleprompter Trump” or “Tethered Trump”.  He would read a statement or two from the teleprompter, then say it again “in his own words” or add something extemporaneously (“you better believe it”).  It was, to use the Donald’s phrase, “low-energy” and delivered in front of some blue bloods at Donald’s country club.  No mention of the wall, or of race.  It did not impress most pundits.  He’s done this before, and then a day or two later, he’s saying something crazy and scary.  As someone said, you don’t get to be called “presidential” just because you are able to give one speech that doesn’t insult a demographic group.

Trump made clear what his strategy is — to go after Clinton.  Hard.  Starting next week.

The thing is, Trump was doing that for a while.  Two weeks ago, he was attacking Hillary on how bad she is for women (citing, oddly, how she vilified the women who claimed they were raped by Bill).  But nobody remembers that now, because Trump stepped on his own tongue by making racist allegations against the judge in his Trump U case.

So maybe that was why Hillary did not see worried in her speech before a cheering throng in Brooklyn last night.  It was a celebratory event — she is the first female presidential nominee in this country.  Love her or hate her, that IS a milestone.  But she also made a clear contrast between her philosophy and Trump’s.  He’s about walls; she’s about bridges.  Forward, not backward.  We are stronger together, than when we divide.

Yes, it is a rather facile and obvious message.  But it is a fundamental one that Trump simply cannot claim.

It’s going to be a tough few months ahead for Hillary.  They’re coming for her.  But don’t let Donald Trump or the press or anyone else convince you that Hillary Clinton is “dogged by scandal” or “works under a constant cloud of controversy” or whatever the nonsense of the day is. That constant cloud is the very deliberate invention of lowlifes in Arkansas; well-heeled conservative cranks; the Republican Party; and far too often a gullible and compliant press. Like anybody who’s been in politics for 40 years, Hillary has some things she should have handled better, but that’s about it. The plain fact is that there’s no serious scandal on her record. There’s no evidence that she’s ever sold out to Wall Street. There’s no corruption, intrigue, or deceit. And if anything, she’s too honest on a policy level. She could stand to promise people a bit of free stuff now and then.

As for Sanders, his campaign is effectively over.  He didn’t win, but it was a success.  It would be unfortunate if Sanders and his supporters became bitter blow-up-the-house anarchists, or do anything that plays into Trump’s hands.  (Trump is counting on it, something he made obvious in his speech last night).  There is much to suggest, as this Politico article makes clear, that the bitterness and pettiness seen in Sanders’ supporters comes right from the top.

But the politicos who have endorsed Sanders seem to get it.   Greg Sargent spoke to two of Sanders’ Congressional supporters – Senator Jeff Merkley and Rep. Raul Grijalva – both of whom say that it is time to build party unity going in to the convention.

“Once a candidate has won a majority of the pledged delegates and a majority of the popular vote, which Secretary Clinton has now done, we have our nominee,” Merkley, who is Sanders’ sole supporter in the Senate, told me. “This is the moment when we need to start bringing parts of the party together so they can go into the convention with locked arms and go out of the convention unified into the general election.”

Merkley, by the way, is probably on the short list for Hillary veep.

Not much to report locally.  We have a Dem Candidate now, Josh Brannon, who will go up against Virginia Foxx, for the US House from NC District 5.

Rep. Renee Ellmers, a Tea Party Republican running for reelection in North Carolina’s second district, lost.  She was the only candidate in the country endorsed by Trump. Trump made robocalls for Ellmers, and she touted his endorsement in e-mails to her supporters.  But she lost to George Holdings, a Tea Party-backed congressional representative who, thanks to gerrymandering in North Carolina, was drawn into the same district as Ellmers.

UPDATE —