The media have fallen out of love with the longstanding pretense that Hillary Clinton still has a chance to win the Democratic nomination. The morning-after ledes by Jackie Calmes in the Wall Street Journal and Dana Milbank in the Washington Post say it all.

Calmes, “Clinton’s Win Brings Little Reward”: “Hillary Clinton trounced Barack Obama in West Virginia’s Democratic presidential primary, as expected. But her negligible payback in convention delegates illustrates why her rival and her party are turning away from her candidacy to begin the fight against Republican John McCain.”

Milbank, “This is an Ex-candidate”: Customer: “Look, matey, I know a dead parrot when I see one, and I’m looking at one right now.”
Pet-shop owner: “No, no he’s not dead, he’s — he’s resting! Remarkable bird, the Norwegian blue, isn’t it, aye? Beautiful plumage!”
– From Monty Python’s Flying Circus

That’s right; the Washington Post is now comparing the Clinton campaign to a dead parrot.

But the more consequential story of the night was Democrat Travis Childers’ win in a special US House election in Mississippi’s very conservative First District. (He’s pictured above.) It’s the third special Congressional election the GOP has lost of late; they also lost one in Illinois in March and another in Louisiana in April.

Good analysis of the GOP’s dawning panic at The Carpetbagger Report and The Hill.

Here’s video of Clinton beating a dead parrot in her post-West Virginia speech.