Countdown to concession: Is today the day for Barack Obama?

A dignified exit or a secret coup? Or a continuing race? Hillary as Obama’s health secretary? (John Edwards as his attorney general and Joe Biden as Secretary of State?) Speculation is runnin’ wild today as the world assumes Barack Obama will declare victory tonight in his race for the Democratic presidential nomination. In honor of primaries in Montana and South Dakota and tonight’s Obama rally at RNC08 HQ in St. Paul, here’s a quick run down of what folks are saying:

Obama called Clinton on Sunday and said that “once the dust settled I was looking forward to meeting with her at a time and place of her choosing.”

Former Iowa governor — and national co-chair of Clinton’s campaign — Tom Vilsack says, “It does appear to be pretty clear that Senator Obama is going to be the nominee. After Tuesday’s contests, she needs to acknowledge that he’s going to be the nominee and quickly get behind him.”

In South Dakota yesterday, Bill Clinton gave the closest thing we’ll likely see to a concession speech: “I want to say also that this may be the last day I’m ever involved in a campaign of this kind. I thought I was out of politics, ’til Hillary decided to run. But it has been, one of the greatest honors of my life to go around and campaign for her for president.”

The New York Times’ new superdelegate counter tallies the support, but if you want quicker results, watch the superdelegates Twitter feed: four declared for Obama today so far, and seven did yesterday.

Americablog wonders if Clinton will suspend her campaign today only to “jump back in at any time before the August convention, and she will leave open the possibility that she will still try to poach Obama’s superdelegates between now and the convention.”

Meanwhile, Manhattan Clinton supporter Harriet Christian, who made headlines by  blasting the Democrats for “throwing the election away… for an inadequate black male,” calms down and discusses her outburst on Fox News. The gist: The Democratic party has left her, and she’s voting for McCain.

Watch the video after the jump.