This chart pretty much tells all you need to know to figure out who the Democratic nominee for president will be.

It offers four different scenarios of how Barack Obama might finish relative to Hillary Clinton in the pledged delegate tally, showing the percentage of remaining pledged delegates he would need to achieve that scenario and the percentage of superdelegates he would need to secure the nomination.

The only plausible scenario here is actually the final one (the others are all too conservative), under which he will finish the primaries and caucuses leading by at least 150 pledged delegates. To get there, he only need to win 48% of the remaining pledged delegates, and he'll actually almost certainly end up doing better than that.

Assuming he ends up leading by 150 pledged delegates (again, a very conservative estimate), to secure the nomination Obama would at that point need just 29% of the remaining uncommitted superdelegates. Piece of cake.

The great thing about these numbers is that the best case scenario on this chart is actually probably a worst case scenario in reality.

At this point, as I've been saying, it's not a question of whether or if Barack Obama will be the Democratic nominee.

It's a question of when and how. Those are important questions, and not just for our state of mind. We want a narrative of Barack Obama's victory that allows him to triumphantly cross the finish line.

At least the most important question is already resolved: Barack Obama will be the Democratic nominee.