DEM RACE IS FINISHED - CARTER

Jimmy Carter has a message for Hillary Rodham Clinton - it's over.

Carter yesterday said he expects that Democratic Party superdelegates will reveal their choice for the presidential nominee soon after the final primary next week, at which point Clinton will have to call it a day.

Asked by Sky News whether he thought there was anything Clinton could achieve by hanging in, Carter, in Britain for a literary festival, said: "I think not. But, of course, she has the perfect right to do so.

"I'm a superdelegate," he added. "I think a lot of the superdelegates will make a decision . . . quite rapidly after the final primary on June 3. I have not yet announced publicly, but I think at that point it will be time for her to give it up."

Barack Obama holds a nearly insurmountable lead in delegates to the party's August nominating convention. But with Clinton refusing to quit, the nominee will likely be decided by the nearly 800 superdelegates, members of Congress and other party insiders who are free to vote for whomever they want.

Either Democrat needs 2,026 delegates to be nominated to run against Republican John McCain in the Nov. 4 general election. According to estimates by MSNBC, Obama has 1,954 to Clinton's 1,783, with 86 delegates left to be won.