Step aside Sen Clinton!

Go Big O!

Hillary Who? He ignored her. Ouch.

The speech settings were striking. Obama was speaking from a 17,000 seat arena and McCain from a generic hotel ballroom. Granted that is somewhat due to the state of the races, but it was striking, especially as they cut from one to the other.

The visual was shockingly striking.

I second those two identical postings above

He is doing exactly what he should be. The best way to show the nonbelievers that he can take on the Republicans is to do it. Granted he'll still be distracted until this primary is settled, but he might as well start taking shots at McCain, because he'll be the one doing it for the rest of the year.

I was at Obama's speech tonight. Wisconsin is fired up. And...

Ready to go.

Hillary needs to Win 56% of all delegates from here on out in order to win the nomination. That's pledged delegates.

Seems that she's toast more or less.

After watching tonight, I was struck watching McCain in how he, at the moment, seems so wildly overmatched. So on the wrong side of history. Obama tied him up with Bush as neatly as he did Hillary & Bill. Neat trick and it will be a major theme of Obama's GE strategy (assuming he dispatches Hillary).

Democratic Voters aren't that stupid. They see the GOP race over and they are getting scared by all of this superdelegate talk. The voters are deciding to end this thing.

I was thrilled to hear Obama speak to the cost of the war in Iraq and the distortion of our priorities because of it. Good message for Wisconsin and good job picking up on populist themes in the upper midwest. Whatever you think of him, he's running a terrific campaign. He must have some very smart people on board.

Oh man! McCain is making counter-arguments? That's just totally unexpected! Why, oh, why didn't somebody warn us this would happen before we voted for Obama? I can see him buckling already because he's not really vetted, you know. The scales have fallen from my eyes. Now if only the rest of his cult-like followers would wake up and see that Obama is the candidate the Republicans really want to run against.

Look, we all see McCain is already moving to the center.
For the good of the party, we need to stop this battle and unite behind the Big O.
If Clinton could have managed a respectable showing tonight, I would say fight on. But she could not.

She has to step aside so we can focus on the general!

Reading the comments above and those at Daily Kos I fear your interpretations of the speeches won't be shared by the general public.

I thought McCain spoke pretty well when he was taking swipes at Obama. He essentially painted Obama as a self-serving, self-promoter who espouses the politics of self-indulgence over self-sacrifice, who is in politics for the glory. That is pretty scathing, and if you are an American of whatever party who hasn't been paying attention to the election or the policy differences, who only knows that Obama is called a rock star and a great speaker that has all style and no substance, you might be inclined to believe McCain. You might also be inclined to think his age and experience are preferable to a young guy just out for glory and far too soon, who has no history of service and sacrifice.

That said, I thought Obama did well to characterize McCain as an American hero deserving of our admiration, but whose policy prescriptions and positions on the issues are simply not what is needed in the America of 2008. I think this is the right way to go. He will have to do a lot better however in framing the experience debate and in keeping America's attention on domestic issues over foreign policy - though I think a McCain-Obama match up will put Iraq front and center.

If Obama gets the nomination, this will be an interesting debate, and the greatest test possible of Obama's political skill.

I'm betting that John Edwards announces his endorsement for Obama tomorrow by joining him on the stage when he gives his speech on the economy at the GM plant.

Publicus, you speak the truth.

I agree with everything you say. But the one difference is that we are now able to fight from a better position than in elections past. All that Reagan hagiography will now come in handy as we pivot to the general. He is perfectly positioned to reach out to swing voters.

The incoming will be fierce, I totally agree. But Obama is on the right side of nearly every argument of voters. The one thing I am learning is that he and his team are not cocky anymore (unlike the week after Iowa). They are whipsmart and will not be undersold.

Let the battle commence.

Well, it's looking pretty good for Senator McCain now, after his underwhelming performance on the weekend. He won very solid victories in Maryland and DC and a very respectable showing in Virginia where Huckabee made a strong push. It's clear that Huck has hit a brick wall. Will he bail out after tonight? Too soon to tell but it's clear he's fighting a losing battle.

Hillary Clinton, on the other hand, is still in a stronger position than Huckabee but she is definitely in decline.

Watch your back, Barack!

It's not over, but Obama is beginning to behave as the nominee, as he should, as Clinton did when she was ahead.

Oops!!! Great day for this country. Forgot to say that...lol

If I were Obama, I'd be tempted to send McCain a dozen roses and a big "thank you" card.

In ignoring Clinton, what McCain essentially did was to signal the essential fear, or more accurately, gut-level terror the GOP has of running against Obama.

Look, I'm no Obamaphile. Yes, I voted for him, but only after Edwards dropped out. The thing is, an Obama nomination and candidacy in the General Election takes away any pretense the Republicans can make of being any sort of party of Optimism. It'll be worse for them than Clinton vs. Dole. Read Peggy Noonan's column if you don't get it.

Ooh, this year is going to be fun.

You can see how the Obama-McCain race will go already. A telling quote from McCain:

When I was a young man, I thought glory was the highest ambition, and that all glory was self-glory. My parents tried to teach me otherwise, as did the Naval Academy. But I didn't understand the lesson until later in life, when I confronted challenges I never expected to face.

This is a speech for the old--the young upstart who learns with age to respect the wisdom of the aged. I expect that the aged will respond favorably. Thus, even more so than in the Dem primary, McCain will get the old vote, Obama will get the young vote, and the race will be decided by those in the middle, who will go one way or the other depending on how much youth remains in their hearts.

The war ain't over. This McCain-Obama debate (if it happens) won't be about youth. It won't be about the economy. The defining issue of McCain's candidacy and of his conservative cred is the war. The defining issue of Obama's candidacy against Clinton has been the war vote.

Obama will not be able to say that he can bring Repubs and Dems together against McCain who has worked for decades with Democrats in defiance of his Republican colleagues. He can't beat McCain on ethics reform or campaign finance reform or compassionate immigration policy. He can try to speak to domestic issues as much as possible (health care, education, clean energy) where there isn't really a strong Republican platform, but the war and in particular the troop withdrawal will become the big issue.

Should we or should we not leave Iraq? I think the voters in the middle are conflicted about this. I think many of us who opposed this war are conflicted about this now.

And you know what? At the end of the day, this election probably should be about the war. Look at the mess we have made. Time to debate how to clean up.

I hope in the general McCain walks around with that posse of extras from Night of the Living Dead that was behind him tonight.

Obama's rhetoric is brilliant--he;s forcing his competitors to be "anti-hope." Instead of doing the thing where the Dem points out how everything sucks, he instead points out how much better it CAN be--it's a subtle difference, but he gets it, unlike Kerry who was forced to run around saying, "I am optimistic about America."

And, yes, this "self-glory" thing is bewildering. Run on experience, say Obama is a whelp, but you can't look at Obama's campaign and think he's about self-glory. It just doesn't read.

McCain is fantastic in interviews and debates, he's quick and informed and funny. At speeches, apparently, not so much.

I think McCain has taken such a hard tack to the right it will be easier to run against him than it would have been a few years ago. Bush/McCain War, Bush/McCain tax cuts--just paste that picture of McCain holding W oh-so-gently, and the maverick thing stops working.

He did vote...it was Hillary who was too busy to vote.

LOL

I just remembered that I noticed Obama used some of Edwards talking points in his speech. Now if I can only remember what they were.

Something about lobbyists was one of them.

I don't know about you, but outside the beltway, 70% of Americans think the occupation in Iraq is wrong, the country is heading in the wrong direction, the economy sucks and health care issues need to be addressed.

Not one of these issues can be credibly addressed by a bush-embracing, tax cut flip flopper like McCain. Clinton ran on the experience and grit ticket. It was punched by Obama. McCain's gonna find that out real quick.

And while you're at it? Check the numbers of people coming out to vote democrat. None of this is good news for McCain or the republicans.

Of course I meant Article II of the Constitution, which requires that the President be a "natural born citizen, or a citizen at the time of the adoption of this Constitution."

Although he has arguments under both prongs, McCain is expected to argue that his birth in the Canal Zone qualifies him as "natural born."

99% joke -- I don't think the constitutional argument re McCain's place of birth has much merit (although perhaps Justice Scalia could allay doubts about his partisanship by endorsing it on uber-originalist grounds). And raising it would be very unObamamanian (although quite Clintonian).

Much more solid was the constitutional argument that Texas' vote in the Electoral College shouldn't have counted in 2000 because both Bush and Cheney were citizens of that state -- an argument that was unsuccessfully litigated (I think rejected only because the private citizen plaintiffs lacked legal standing).

Turnaround -- you do know why McCain's arms are like that, don't you? I'd drop that one off future lists.

Listening to McCain's speech, it is hard not to notice that he has the unfortunate cadence of a bed-time story.

I don't think the "Obama is a glory hound" dog is going to hunt for McCain. Obama may be a lot of things, but "glory hound" a very tough sell, IMO. Is the argument that Obama is a glory hound by running for President? If so, then so is McCain (and he has done it more than once). Is Obama a glory hound by telling people he will be a strong and good leader who can solve problems? If so, who wouldn't want that in a President? Would we prefer a President who is not prepared to say he or she is a strong or good leader? Would we prefer a President who is not prepared to say he or she will attack the problems that the electorate believes exist? McCains angle (which is, more or less, "I am not about me -- I am here because of so many others") does not create the image of leadership that it seems to me America has valued so highly in the last several presidential elections. I am sure McCain will refine and strengthen this attack on Obama if Obama is the nominee, but it is not very powerful in its current form.

You know, when you people get all deliriously happy and star-struck because Obama can wow a crowd of 17,000 in a stadium, you make me really nervous. Twenty-first century Americans aren't supposed to be so impressed with such things; after all, this isn't Germany in the 1930s. Try to think about substance, will you?

Oh, I forgot . . . Obama has delivered any substance so far. So I guess you have to concentrate on the staging, the appearances, etc.

Right. Let's compare Obama to Hitler. Come on, you guys. Seriously, what are you saying? We have two worthy Democratic candidates in the most exciting primary race in decades, and we're getting Hitler comparisons. Seriously. Shame on you. Is this really who we want to be? We're Democrats, we're really not supposed to be trotting out Nazi comparisons.

Let us twist the rise of Hitler and the Holocaust and trivialize it for our own rhetorical purposes, because someone dared challenge Hillary Clinton. The Obama supporters are supposed to be creepy cultists, but from Hillary supporters we get paranoid vast conspiracy delusions and Hitler comparisons?

Shame on you.