There’s been a lot of pundit chatter tonight to the effect that Obama should not have passed on campaigning in Kentucky over the last few days despite the fact that he seemed set to lose by a massive margin. (Why make an effort if it’s not going to pan out? Why screw with the low expectations?)

I think they’re right. To weirdly paraphrase Ronald Reagan’s line from 1980, I think someone running for president needs to go to everyone and say, in so many words, you may not be for me, but I’m for you.

At the same time, there’s simply no getting around the role of race in the Kentucky and, for that matter, the West Virginia results. From the exit poll numbers tonight, “Was Race of the Candidate Important to You?” 21% said Yes and 81% of those voted for Hillary Clinton.

Given how the levels of under-reporting are that go into a question like that, I don’t think you easily get around that number.

Still, he should have gone.

A number of readers have written in to ask whether Hillary Clinton’s $22 million raised in April includes her own loan to her campaign of $6.4 million. Greg Sargent asked Howard Wolfson. And the answer was, no. It doesn’t include that money.

MSNBC calls it for Obama.

But Fox and CNN say still too close to call.

Late Update: Both CNN and Fox are suggesting that Obama leads in Oregon, but are not yet prepared to call it.

Later Update: Fox calls it for Obama. CNN, too.

Hillary adviser Sidney Blumenthal says the public doesn’t see John McCain as a continuation of President Bush.

Obama beat Hillary in Oregon among working class white voters, according to the post-vote surveys there. Obviously he didn’t do so well among those voters in Kentucky. More support for defining Obama’s struggles with working class whites as an Appalachia problem?

The Justice Department inspector general’s report is less important for what it says about the FBI’s role in detainee interrogations than it is for the system of torture it catalogs.

Zogby’s latest numbers: Obama 47%, McCain 37%, Nader 4%, Barr 3%.

Without Barr and Nader it’s Obama 48%, McCain 40%.

Jo-Ann Mort has an idea for Hillary’s next act: follow in Ted Kennedy’s footsteps and become labor’s lion in the Senate.