Going into today’s primaries, the punditry has been preoccupied with the question of whether or not Obama can “close the deal.” A valid question, sure. But a more interesting question might be what happens if he wins?

I’m a baseball fan, and every year there is a team that manages to clinch their division relatively early in August. Or worse yet, they never do quite clinch and end up limping into the playoffs. In sports, momentum is everything, and these teams don’t usually do well in the post-season.

To superimpose the metaphor onto politics. Say Obama pulls this thing out; it will be a limping victory. Can he overcome the lack of momentum? Can he and Hillary “unite” and re-energize the party? These are the pertinent questions.

From a political point of view, if Obama wins the nomination, he’d be wise to offer the VP nod to Hillary for precisely this reason; she’s the one with momentum right now and he has to figure out a way to leverage that.