Trailhead: A campaign blog.

A Consolation for Montana

Poor Montana. They were so, so close to mattering.

The moment South Dakota's polls closed at 9 p.m. ET, the balloons and confetti started raining on the Obama campaign as the Mount Rushmore State awarded Obama the four delegates he needed to clinch the nomination. It wasn't much more than a technicality; Clinton would have had to win the state by about 80 percent to hold Obama off for a few more minutes. But South Dakota can still claim to be the state that gave Obama the nomination.

Montana is officially an afterthought, number 56 of 56, and enjoys the dubious distinction of having been the only state to finish voting after the nomination was decided.