Obama kicked *ss, eh? Not only did he beat Clinton, but he outdrew all of the Republican candidates combined. In fact, Clinton, who gets no more than 36 percent in any primary contest today, outpolled McCain by a substantial margin, even in Virginia, a former "red" state. Looks like we can put aside those "electibility" arguments for a couple of days.
Anyhoo, the purge continues in the Clinton camp. A protégé of former campaign manager Patti Solis Doyle, deputy campaign manager Mike Henry, resigned. (The Atlantic's Joshua Green has an excellent insider report of the shakeup.)
Obama's got the momentum right now, but everything could change after the Ohio and Texas primaries. That's almost 400 delegates. March 4. Still, Obama's riding high tonight, so I think it's fitting to do a little comparing of the Illinois Senator's remarks last night with the Arizona Senator's. I think you'll find it enlightening, too...
Tonight we're on our way, but we know how much further we have to go. We know it takes more than one night or even one election to overcome decades of money and the influence, the bitter partisanship and petty bickering that shut you out, let you down, told you to settle.
We know our road will not be easy, but we also know that, at this moment, the cynics can no longer say that our hope is false. We have now won east and west, north and south, and across the heartland of this country we love.
We have given young people a reason to believe, and we have brought the young at heart back to the polls who want to believe again....
We are bringing together Democrats and independents and, yes, some Republicans. I know this. I meet them when I'm shaking hands afterwards. There's one right there, an Obamacan, that's what we call them...
We're bringing Democrats, independents, Republicans, blacks and whites, Latinos and Asians, and Native Americans, small states and big states, red states and blue states, all into the United States of America. That's our project. That's our mission.
But now, my friends, comes the hard part, and for America, the much bigger decision. We do not yet know for certain who will have the honor of being the Democratic Party's nominee for president. But we know where either of their candidates will lead this country, and we dare not let them....
They will promise a new approach to governing, but offer only the policies of a political orthodoxy that insists the solution to government's failures is to simply make it bigger.
They will appeal to our dreams of a better future for ourselves, our families and our country, but they would take from us more of the wealth we have earned to build those dreams and assure us that government is better able than we are to make decisions about our future for us.
They will promise to break with the failed politics of the past, but will campaign in ways that seek to minimize their exposure to questions from the press and challenges from voters who ask more from their candidates than an empty promise of, "Trust me, I know better."
You want to know why people flock to Obama? Just revisit this post by Glenn Greenwald from way back in '06...
Americans didn't change their views because the media suddenly became adversarial or effective in its watchdog function (it didn't), nor because Democrats found a will or a way to provide meaningful opposition (they haven't), nor because the Bush administration's propaganda is now less ruthless or deceitful (it isn't). They changed their minds largely on their own, by simply looking at what is going on around them and using their critical faculties to compare what they see to the claims made by the Bush movement, and they have noticed the gaping disparities. And they are angry about it. Very angry.
Personally, I'm thrilled that in Obama we have the perfect vehicle to positively channel this anger into a vision of a working government, one that doesn't pander to its financial supporters, one that doesn't sow division and fear, one that governs well instead of operating as an instrument to accumulate power.
McCain...well...he just looks old and tired and slightly bitter.
