The Big Night

And suddenly there was a flood. Nobody has yet reported the sequence or the names, but around the time that the networks declared Obama the presumptive nominee (which was immediately after South Dakota polls closed, and he only needed a few delegates) the flood-gates of super d's opened. NBC's final count for the day was 59.5, with Clinton losing 3. That put him well over the top, even past the number he would have needed had Michigan and Florida been seated with full delegates. There are likely to be more on Wednesday.

Obama's speech was exciting, and aimed more at the general election public than in looking back on the campaign. He had apparently watched the earlier McCain speech, and was already responding to it, and he reportedly watched Clinton's speech, which may be why he looked to me a bit annoyed. (Or maybe it was just me, because I was seriously annoyed.) Ambinder suggested he was close to tears, and I did catch some of that vibe, too. "Obama thanked his grandmother above all else; without her, he said, none of this would have been possible. She is white, of course. The explicit message is obvious. The implicit message: this thing, this event, is much more than just a step for racial equality."

And as Joe Klein wrote, "His graciousness made Hillary Clinton's lack of grace--and lack of realism about her fate--seem unworthy of her and rather small."

Fortunately, newspapers around the world could care less about Clinton: their headlines were all about Obama. The nominee of the Democratic Party for President of the United States.

Final note on the primaries: Though South Dakota will show as a 10 point win for Clinton, that amounts to about a ten thousand votes difference. Obama's 16 point win in Montana represents a difference of more than 25,000 votes.