We WIN!

That's it - it's effectively over. Obama wins BIG in North Carolina, and holds it to a 2 point victory for Clinton in Indiana. To understand why this effectively seals the deal for Obama, we need to understand the backdrop.

For the last 6 weeks, Obama has been off message as he's been attacked by Clinton with a series of basically Republican talking points. The most effective of these was the Reverend Wright. This is Obama's pastor, and a long time friend. His Race speech in Philadelphia (which I posted here previously) was an attempt to address that. It was, by any objective measure, a fine speech, and went a long way to putting critics voices to rest. But, then up pops Wright again on a promotional tour, saying more stuff and giving the critics more ammunition (and remember here, the point is not whether what he said was right, in fact it largely was, but whether it could be used by the other side, which it surely could). Obama was justifiably angry, because (he said) he profoundly disagreed with the remarks, but in fact one could also infer that he felt betrayed by someone who would have known the trouble it would cause, and went ahead anyway. So, he gave another speech in which he roundly denounced Wright this time, with no room for conciliation or disagreement on what he meant.

The denouncement did the trick, and for the last 10 days or so this speech, allied with Clinton's push for a 'gas tax holiday' for the summer, which would save the average driver just $30, seems to have allowed Obama to get back on message. People recognized the gas tax holiday for what it was - political pandering, and Obama played on this, pointing out that it was precisely the 'politics as usual' that he was here to change.

On to last night, where poll averages were showing Obama ahead in North Carolina by 5 or 6 points, and Clinton ahead in Indiana by the same amount. Instead, Obama blew the lid off North Carolina, bringing in a 14 point victory, and holding Clinton to a 2 point (or less!) spread in Indiana - hardly convincing for Clinton, who really needed to win convincingly in Indiana and at least beat expectations in North Carolina, to continue her 'this is still a close race' narrative.

Even the myopic Main Stream Media (MSM) saw the writing on the wall, and this morning the expectation is that, although she may continue the race, the contest is (barring a completely unforseen event) effectively over.

Hillary's speech last night was upbeat, of course, but slightly less aggressive than we have seen, and slightly more conciliatory. For his part, Obamas speech was classic oratory, at once both conciliatory to the Democratic base, and also assertively laying out why he is running for President - a wake up call McCain that the game is ON!