After establishing a rapport with a noted brain surgeon, Senator Ted Kennedy undergoes successful surgery in North Carolina. Meanwhile, Kennedy's friend, 90-year-old Senator Robert Byrd of West Virginia, is hospitalized after feeling lethargic.

In the race for President, we have reached the finish line for primaries and caucuses. In Montana, 16 delegates are at stake, while 15 are up for grabs in South Dakota. According to CNN's count, Obama has 2,076 of the necessary 2,118 to win the nomination, which means he cannot get to the finish line with just pledged delegates, as there are only 31 remaining to win. But, many now expect that super delegates (and Clinton supporters) will start moving into Obama's camp, which should get him over the top, perhaps as soon as tomorrow.

So, much of the speculation now turns to the general election (although there will still be some drama until Hillary finally calls it quits, and additional drama until Obama picks a running mate). Richard Cohen, for one, is glad the primary campaign is over, as he has come to loathe the whole process on the Democratic side (I think, primarily, because his side of the ideological divide has done so much damage to their own cause). Dick Morris and Eileen McGann think that the Iraq War may turn out, against all expectations, to be Obama's Achilles Heel. David Brooks believes both the Obama and McCain people ought to remember that, despite their optimism, each candidate has serious deficiencies. Victor Davis Hanson believes that the Democrats have nominated the only candidate who could lose this November, and the Republicans nominated the only candidate on their side who can win. Froma Harrop sees trouble for the Obama people with the alienation of older, white women due to their perception of how badly Hillary was treated during the process.

I see a race that still looks bleak for the GOP (high gas prices, high food prices, high home heating oil prices, a sluggish economy, fatigue after eight years of a Republican administration in the White House, a disorganized and ineffectual Republican Party in Congress), but that could still end up with McCain in the White House, albeit with an even larger Democratic majority in the Congress. Still, many miles to go yet before we pull the levers and make our choices.