Thoughts about Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton as the Democrats turn to West Virginia, scene of a historic 1960 primary:

When NBC’s Tim Russert and ABC’s George Stephanopoulos say the contest for the nomination is essentially over — which they said yesterday in the aftermath of Obama’s decisive victory in North Carolina and Clinton’s eking out only a narrow win in Indiana — I won’t argue with them.

Indeed, Obama fan Lincoln Chafee, the former Republican senator who is now an independent, can’t understand how Clinton fails to grasp the delegate math. “What is the strategy? It eludes me.”

Democratic Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, a Clinton backer, says, “Hillary’s entitled to fight on … and I hope she does …. There’s a possibility that if you count the Florida and Michigan votes, she could win the popular vote, and, you know, it’s a free country … She has a good message.”

But what would he advise if Clinton told him she was mulling a withdrawal for the sake of party unity and perhaps to surface as vice president? “She has put an enormous amount of effort into this campaign. It has been a very hostile press and pundit environment for her. She has shown exceptional grit and determination, and I would tell her to do what her heart told her to do.”

He adds, “She knows very well the position that she’s in and I trust her to make that decision.”

Obama said Tuesday night that Democrats must remember heroes like Franklin D. Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy. “We are at our best when we lead with principle, when we lead with conviction, when we summon an entire nation to a common purpose and a higher purpose.”

A higher purpose, presumably, than Clinton’s phony baloney call for a summer suspension of the gasoline tax. I wonder how many votes she lost in North Carolina and Indiana when, in a Sunday interview with Stephanopoulos, she couldn’t or wouldn’t name one credible economist who endorsed her proposal.

Meanwhile, the fact that next Tuesday’s primary is in West Virginia stirs memories. When Kennedy, a Catholic, defeated Hubert Humphrey in that heavily Protestant state in 1960, he took a giant leap toward the nomination.

You likely will see flashes of film about it on TV between now and Tuesday. But if you really want to savor some nostalgia, look up the May 9, 1960 issue of Life magazine with Yvette Mimieux (“Warmly Wistful Starlet”) on the front cover. Inside the cover is an ad for the Rambler car (“First to understand and meet America’s new motoring needs”). The back cover has a Salem ad (“every puff brings new mildness into the smoke … new freshness into the flavor.”)

Inside is a spread that includes an iconic photo of JFK, in a suit and tie, chatting with coal miners.

The story begins, “In drowsy mountain towns and harsh mining strips West Virginians were blinking under the unaccustomed glare of national attention. Two hard-campaigning presidential candidates were loose on their land and the state had seldom seen such a fuss over politics.”

It’s quite a package. But really, all you need to know is what the caption under the Kennedy photo says:

“The miners gave Kennedy a cool reception at first, some even refusing to shake his hand. But he gradually broke down their reserve with questions about local economic conditions and their job security. When the bull session broke up, one miner said, ‘I want to shake hands with a President.’ ”

M. Charles Bakst is The Journal’s political columnist.

mbakst@projo.com