Ok, I want to hear an opinion on this from those folks on Maggie Mahar's Medicare-related threads who have been arguing that if we would just stop stopping spending so much on end-of-life treatments on eldery people, everything would be hunky dory. So should Senator Kennedy be allowed to have expensive cancer treatment paid by Medicare if he wants it? Or should we just demand Medicare only pay for a hospice for "comfort care" and let nature take its course? Or is it that rich old people with brain tumors have the extra choice of trying to live a couple more years and poor old people have the single choice of going to hospice?

Mr. Obama does not want to appear as if he is pushing Mrs. Clinton out of the race, preferring instead to treat her gracefully as a worthy Democratic fighter, not as a stubborn nemesis.

He issued a directive to his campaign not to overtly declare victory at a rally on Tuesday in Iowa, a sentiment he telegraphed in Montana on Monday where he appealed for support in the state’s June 3 primary.

“We still have a number of contests, including Montana, before we’re able to secure the nomination,” Mr. Obama said, speaking to an audience in Billings. “Senator Clinton has run a magnificent race, and she is still working hard, as am I, for all of these last primary contests.”

From Obama Is Expected to Hit a Milestone in Today’s Votes, New York Times, May 20.