The seemingly endless battle for the Democratic presidential nomination may still seem to grind on, but it’s really about over, with Barack Obama the almost certain nominee. Hillary Clinton failed to gain the victory she needed Tuesday to upend the race and convince superdelegates, who hold the balance of power, that she would be the stronger candidate in November.

Senator Obama won decisively in North Carolina and almost captured Indiana, despite having just come through two of the worst weeks of his campaign, as he flip-flopped over his longtime pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, denouncing him after refusing earlier to do so. That issue failed to move many Democrats, though, as voters rallied around Mr. Obama’s charm.

Senator Clinton, meanwhile, seemed to suffer from growing “Clinton fatigue,” as voters weighed whether they want to see her crew back in the White House. News of the Clintons’ stunning financial windfall after they left Washington — upwards of $109 million — probably did not help. And Mrs. Clinton’s pandering to voters upset over high gasoline prices by irresponsibly demanding that the federal gasoline excise tax be cut during the summer failed to play as well as she had hoped. Indeed, it might have backfired.

That her campaign is now on life support is surely a staggering blow to Mrs. Clinton, who seemed the “inevitable” nominee only half a year ago. Mr. Obama, often dismissed as a first-term senator who lacks the experience to serve well as president, has rallied his party’s faithful with his high intelligence, good looks, dignified calm, youthful energy, golden oratory and heartwarming potential to make history as America’s first black president.

Still, there are some storm clouds. His defeat in Indiana, though a narrow one, was one more loss in one of the populous states Democrats will want to win in November. While he captured more than 90 percent of the black vote — assuring him of a big victory in North Carolina, given the demographics of that state — and fared well with highly educated suburban liberals, he continued to have trouble with flag-waving, blue-collar white voters, crucial swing voters in general elections. Mrs. Clinton did all she could in recent weeks to court that group, at one point gamely downing shots of Crown Royal with a beer chaser.

Look now for the party’s elders to coalesce around Senator Obama, and for he and Sen. John McCain, the presumptive GOP nominee, to start fighting in earnest for those swing voters.