BREAKING: Barack Obama now the presumptive Democratic nominee!!!!!!!

After six long months of primaries and caucuses and conventions, the nominating season is over. Barack Obama has chalked up enough delegates to clinch the Democratic nomination. He is our presumptive standard bearer.

Here's the Associated Press:

Obama's victory set up a five-month campaign with Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona, a race between a 46-year-old opponent of the Iraq War and a 71-year-old former Vietnam prisoner of war and staunch supporter of the current U.S. military mission.

Superdelegates are continuining to come forward, pledging their support to Obama:

The polls have closed in South Dakota, while those in Montana will close at 10 p.m. Eastern time. The early returns from South Dakota showed that race too close to call.

During the day, a parade of Democratic superdelegates stepped forward to declare their allegiance to Mr. Obama, pushing him ever closer to the threshold of 2,118 delegates needed to receive the nod formally at this summer’s Democratic convention in Denver.

As South Dakota’s polls closed, Mr. Obama was within a handful of delegates of securing enough delegates for the nomination, according to the campaign’s tally.

Every one of us at the Northwest Progressive Institute firmly believes that Barack Obama has what it takes to defeat John McCain in November. Barack Obama will be the next President of the United States of America. We believe he will heal, replenish, and restore our suffering and divided nation.