Back On His Game

The speech I quote below was something of a climax to a two-day burst of activity that showed that, after a fairly quiet time after March 4, Obama is back, and he's taken his game to a new level.

This speech followed the statement and interviews about Pastor Wright and his trip to Chicago to answer literally every question that reporters at both Chicago dailies had about his past relationships with Tony Rezko, which left both newspapers (the Chicago Tribune, and the Sun-Times) entirely satisfied that there is no story anymore. And the reporters clearly came away respecting and admiring Obama.

Obama also released a list of the "earmarks" he'd requested as a Senator, while Hillary Clinton--making big noises about the need for such disclosures--would not release hers.

Obama taking control of the ongoing stories, and turning the threat of deep racial division back to the strongest point of his candidacy--his insistence on including everyone, listening to everyone--is the work of a statesman and a master politician.

And even while all this furious nonsense was happening, Obama was quietly increasing his delegate lead (a gain of as many as 10 delegates from Iowa Saturday in the second part of their caucus process), super-delegates and endorsements (including the Oregon ASFCME, breaking with the national union that long ago endorsed Clinton.)

Summarizing this elsewhere yesterday, I mentioned the comment by House Speaker Pelosi that if super-delegates go against the election results, the party would be harmed. Now according to today's New York Times, this is the prevailing sentiment among uncommitted super-delegates--that they won't go against election results. And according to this story, at least one of them have said so to Hillary Clinton's face.