Emailed stalker sighting of the presumptive Democratic nominee: "Barack Obama - Spotted. 84th and Park. Shook his hand. Dude has a nice watch!" Obama did have a scheduled fundraiser in New York today.

The NYPD and the Secret Service shut down an art exhibition across the street from the New York Times building earlier this morning. The show's title was "The Assassination of Hillary Clinton/The Assassination of Barack Obama." This is today's "Thing most assured of getting in the tabloids tomorrow." The artist, Yazmany Arboleda, says his project is really about the media—he's definitely good at getting media attention, at least. He's even set up a website for each candidate's assassination (uh, in the media). Photos of his illegal work after the jump:

Barack Obama is the Democratic nominee for President! It's so exciting and historic! Finally, newspapers across the nation get to run all those "what does it mean that we have a black candidate" pieces they've been sitting on for months. In the interest of having something new to say about this campaign of a thousand cuts, we've compiled a gallery of newspaper front pages from around the nation (but mostly New York and DC). Check them out, along with our commentary and exclusive analysis, below.

Tonight might be a very important and momentous occasion, with a black man securing a major-party presidential nomination for the first time in history and all, but Anderson Cooper isn't going to let that stop him from being outrageous and giggly. The dreamy CNN anchor was interviewing Donna Brazile, strategist for a long string of failed Democratic presidential candidates, when he said something complimentary that made her blush and declare, "you're not my boo." When Cooper replied that "I want to be your boo," everyone got a little flustered and giddy and, probably, confused. Anderson, clearly lost at sea, asked everyone to explain what the word "boo" means to him at some later time. In the meantime, Cooper should be thanked for ensuring that tonight really was an important time for bridge-building and new directions in America. Clip after the jump.

Sure, the Times has joined ABC News, NBC News, CNN and AP in declaring Barack Obama the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee based on his delegate count after a victory in Montana and sufficiently strong showing in South Dakota. But after Obama rival Hillary Clinton refused to do the same and finally, mercifully concede during a speech tonight, no one really knew what Obama would say. Well, he stuck to the script: "I will be the Democratic nominee," followed by a polite nod to Clinton and her campaign, then a pelting of John McCain, starting with this: "I honor [his military] service, and I respect his many accomplishments, even if he chooses to deny mine." Video excerpt of the speech after the jump.

Hillary Clinton isn't conceding anything until her demands are met: she wants to be, according to the talking heads on TV, the vice presidential nominee; to have a "Teddy Kennedy" moment in the spotlight at the convention; and to have a big influence over the platform. That's why, in her speech tonight at the end of the Democratic primary process, at a time when Obama has won Montana and collected sufficient delegates in South Dakota to be the presumptive nominee, she declared she wasn't going to formally drop out of the race. She congratulated Obama for the "race he has run" instead of "the race he has won." Her suicide cult supporters were apparently ensconced in some kind of bat cave for several hours, reportedly without TV or cell phone reception, and were acting particularly crazy and defiant, yelling so loudly at certain points that they could be heard on camera even as Clinton was trying to speak. Watch a cruel and calculating Clinton refuse to end the relentless, nightmare Democratic primary in the non-concession concession speech after the jump.

Barack Obama has been declared the Democratic nominee now by CNN, NBC News, ABC News and AP; his victory speech has already gone online. The historic occasion of a black Democratic candidate touched the hearts of even the grizzled veteran news anchors at NBC. Chris Matthews read comments from South African anti-apartheid icon Desmond Tutu, who recently said of Obama, "Where else in the world would you ever have had anything like that?" Fellow anchors Keith Olbermann and Tom Brokaw both sounded even more sentimental, getting a bit choked up talking about Obama in the clip after the jump. Aww. Sometimes your quavering voice makes a "Special Comment" all its own, Keith.

It's that time of year when institutions of higher learning heartlessly eject their seniors into the real world! Princeton grads were treated to the best speech of the season; Stephen Colbert delivered a zinger-filled address (above) in which he wisely reminded grads that "no one will ever, ever want to hear you sing a capella" outside college. How true. But plenty of other colleges tapped A through Z-list celebs to brace their soon-to-be-discharged students for entry into the workforce.

Today, the Associated Press announced that Barack Obama is officially the Democratic nominee for President. Which means that the Hillary Clinton campaign is finished. It's been a long, long time. Two years, actually! We first tracked the history of the Clinton campaign back in April, when it was just probably doomed. Now it's time to revisit that history, this time with a big fancy chart. The data points are Barack Obama's closing prices on political futures betting site InTrade. The higher the closing price, the more likely investors think his nomination is (with 100 being dead-on certainty). Click to enlarge the chart, and to re-read our April history explaining the significance of the dates mentioned. Now updated with relevant "May" and "Early June" information!

Clinton campaign head Terry McAuliffe is clearly going nuts trying to explain anything about the Clinton campaign's strategy of not conceding. He said on The Today Show that if Obama reaches the magic number of delegates tonight (which he will, with victories in South Dakota, Montana, and a few more superdelegates), Hillary will "congratulate him and call him the nominee." This led to the AP explaining that Hil has effectively conceded. The problem is: she hasn't. She called The View to explain her position and upset Barbara.

The rumor that the Republican Party has a tape of Michelle Obama railing against "whitey" in Rev. Jeremiah Wright's church apparently surfaced two weeks ago on No Quarter, a blog operated by Larry Johnson, a self-described former CIA analyst and supporter of Obama's Democratic presidential rival Hillary Clinton. No evidence has emerged to corroborate the wild rumor, but Fox News went ahead and aired the charges on camera today. The justification?

CBS president Les Moonves on talk show host / former supermodel Tyra Banks: "We're in a new day. We've seen with Tyra that the audience is changing. In the past, her audience would have been primarily African-American, but the television audience in general is becoming increasingly colorblind, and younger viewers are particularly colorblind. It's similar to the pattern we're seeing with voters and Barack Obama-he and Tyra have a similar appeal to the youth audience." [NYT]

"Democratic Party leaders agreed Saturday to seat Michigan and Florida delegates with half-votes at this summer's convention with a compromise that left Barack Obama on the verge of the nomination but riled Hillary Rodham Clinton backers who threatened to fight to the August convention. 'Hijacking four delegates is not a good way to start down the path of party unity,' said adviser Harold Ickes. Clinton's camp maintains she was entitled to four additional Michigan delegates."

Senator Hillary Clinton trails Senator Barack Obama in both delegates and the popular vote. On Tuesday, the last of primaries will be decided in Montana and South Dakota, where Obama is expected to win. "But that doesn't mean Sen. Clinton will be delivering a concession speech next week. The former first lady is favored to win the Puerto Rico primary on Sunday. A big victory there, combined with strong showings in Montana and South Dakota where Sen. Obama is favored, would put Sen. Clinton ahead in the popular vote, according to her campaign, which counts the votes from the disputed contests in Florida and Michigan and excludes caucus states. Most independent tallies of the popular vote put Sen. Obama ahead [...] 'Voting will be over [on Tuesday] but it's very unlikely the nomination will be secured,' says Clinton campaign strategist Geoff Garin." After the jump, just-released audio of Bill Clinton describing his devious plan for Florida and Michigan at a private fundraiser.

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama spent $3.5 million on advertising online in the first quarter of 2008, $3 million of which went to Google. Granted, Obama's done well in contributions from Googlers — as of Q4 2007, contributors who listed Google as their employer contributed $338,965 to the Obama campaign. Which means that early investment has already paid off tenfold. Or considered another way, Obama can bank a 10 percent discount on ads from Google. The Clinton campaign? It only received a paltry $79,170. Other companies cashing in on election season? Yahoo got only $350,000, which was still $282,000 more than Microsoft. Even urban blog network Gothamist managed to pull in a direct buy worth $2,800.

Following in the footsteps of 71-year-old miracle of modern medical technology John McCain, Barack Obama released information on his medical health. Instead of 1,200 pages, like McCain, Obama just put out a simple note from his doctor that concluded he was in "excellent health." Before that, though, it said a full-body (ahem) examination revealed the Democratic presidential candidate's "build was lean and muscular with no excess body fat," which you kind of knew, but it's nice to get confirmation from someone who has seen Obama, you know, all over. Also, "his diet was balanced with good intake of roughage and fluids." But what is the doctor trying to tell us with this: "A complete review of systems was unremarkable." Either that's a nod to the monstrous-in-more-ways-than-one vice president, or he just means Obama isn't a walking catalog of ailments like McCain, whose health (or lack thereof) is lampooned in the Daily Show clip after the jump.

When News Corp. chairman Rupert Murdoch decided to sit down for a rare, on-camera interview, it was of course with two reporters from his own media empire, Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher of the Wall Street Journal. In this clip from the Journal's D conference in Carlsbad, California, Murdoch explains how he thinks the Journal and Times will be competing aggressively with one another on all stories — business, political or otherwise — within just "a few months." He also rants about how it's "ridiculous" that an average of 8.3 editors looks at a typical WSJ story, inevitable expanding it beyond reason. "People don't have time for it — there's not a story that you can't get all the facts in (within) half the space." Also: Murdoch confirms he was involved in the Post's decision to switch its allegiance from Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton to Barack Obama.

Lovable media mogul Rupert Murdoch, owner of News Corp, has been going around predicting a landslide victory for the Democrats this November and also big-upping Senator Barack Obama—he called Obama a "superstar" and a "complete phenomenon" at a conference yesterday. He apparently nudged his pet tabloid the New York Post toward an Obama endorsement in the New York primaries (despite his early attempts at making friendly with the Clintons). And as the Post goes, so goes, well, other News Corp holdings. So maybe Fox News will let up on Barry a bit? They've never been terribly friendly to McCain anyhow. But why would this noted conservative tyrant endorse Mr. Liberal Hope? He's done it before—with a friendly little weasel named Tony Blair.

In this week's cover story about Barack Obama, Newsweek distills the conventional political wisdom into a bitter tonic of condescending campaign advice. The Democratic presidential candidate is praised for having "wisely taken to often wearing and American-flag lapel" and advised "it would help to be seen venerating your white mother and grandparents as well as your black father" and that "whites resent being accused of racism for remarks they regard as innocent," in case the black politician hadn't learned that yet. To illustrate this cynical lesson in realpolitik, the magazine had originally planned to run the suitably stark cover above and on the left, according to the person who supplied us with a copy. But that cover was "killed" late Friday night, we are told, and replaced with the bright and sunny front at right — a bizarre choice given the gritty lead article and stark collection of supporting pieces on racial division. More outlandish still is the purported reason for the cover switch:

How much did President Bush drink? When did he quit? Did he quit? And what else did he do? There are absolutely no definitive answers to any of those questions, and most of the witnesses and parties involved are suspect or worse. Still, with the publication of former press secretary Scott McClellan's book, complete with re-airing of those old cocaine rumors, it might be fun to investigate the out-going president's drug history, as found both in the public record and the fever dreams of conspiracy artists.