Obama’s Big Win on May 6

The May 6 primaries all but sealed the deal for Barack Obama. But let's be clear: This is Bill Clinton without the libido. This is not the reincarnation of FDR. Obama is not offering a New Deal. He’s offering neo-neoliberalism.The May 6 primaries all but sealed the deal for Barack Obama. He came out of them in a much stronger position to wrap up the nomination. His victory speech was a powerful one, whereas Hillary Clinton’s speech, and the talk from her camp, seemed almost divorced from reality. Expect the superdelegates to flock to Obama in the next few days.

While Clinton made a run at Obama in North Carolina, he won there handily, 56-42, by a whopping margin of about 230,000.

In Indiana, where the vote was close until deep into the night, Clinton squeaked by 51-49 with barely a 20,000-vote spread, even though she was much further ahead in most polls during the final week.

To his supporters, Obama delivered one of his trademark speeches, and he gave notice to the Republicans—and to the superdelegates—that he’s ready for a fight.

He bent over to be gracious to Hillary Clinton and her supporters.

He stressed his themes of hope and change, praising voters for standing up to “the cynics and the doubters and the naysayers.”

He condemned “the politics of division and the politics of distraction,” and “the same, old negative attacks that are always about scoring points and never about solving our problems.”

He talked about “the America I love,” one that “didn’t just reward wealth, but it rewarded work and the workers who created it.”

Like Bill Clinton he said, “We don’t need big government.” And, “Government can’t solve all our problems, and we don’t expect it to. We believe in personal responsibility and self-reliance.”

Yet, he did follow that up by endorsing a positive role for government “that stands up for families who are being tricked out of their homes by Wall Street predators, a government who stands up for the middle class by giving them a tax break, a government that ensures that no American will ever lose their life savings just because their child gets sick.”

But let's be clear: This is Bill Clinton without the libido, Bill Clinton with a conscience. This is not the reincarnation of FDR. Obama is not offering a New Deal. He’s offering neo-neoliberalism.

To Democratic voters and to superdelegates who worry he’s not tough enough to take on John McCain, Obama had a message.

“We know what’s coming,” he said. “I’m not naïve.”

He said he expects Republicans to “play on our fears and exploit our differences, to turn us against each other for political gain.”

And he gave a good riff about trusting the American people to see through the clouds of the Republican fog machine.

“The other side can label and name-call all they want, but I trust the American people to recognize that it is not surrender to end the war in Iraq so that we can rebuild our military and go after Al Qaeda’s leaders,” he said. “I trust the American people to understand that it is not weakness, but wisdom to talk not just to our friends, but to our enemies, like Roosevelt did, and Kennedy did, and Truman did.”

He also wasn’t afraid to join the “values” debate, saying McCain’s “ideas for America are out of touch” with the country’s “core values.” Spelling this out, he said: “Security and opportunity, compassion and prosperity aren’t liberal values. They are not conservative values. They are American values.”

In contrast to Obama’s confident speech, Hillary Clinton sounded like Jerry Brown at the beginning, begging people to go to her website and donate money.

She thanked her supporters in Indiana and then said, “It’s full speed on to the White House.”

There’s a thin line between putting on a game face and being deluded.

She repeated her tedious talking points: “ready on day one to take charge as commander-in-chief”; “Americans need a champion in their corner”; “a President who knows how to make this economy work for hard-working middle-class families.”

Her vision of a better America did not soar like Obama’s. She talked of “better futures for you and your children, solving the problems that affect us here in America.”

She did hit a grace note when she expressed her “deepest sympathies to the victims of the devastating cyclone in Burma” and called upon the junta there to let international aid in.

For all her stiff upper lip, Hillary betrayed a twitch or two of doubt about her prospects. “No matter what happens, I will work for the nominee of the Democratic Party,” she said. She went out of her way to thank Chelsea and Bill. And she pursed her lips when she said that she intends to win West Virginia and Kentucky not only in the primaries next month but “in November in the general election.”

Her camp stuck to its talking points, though. All night long, Hillary hack Lanny Davis on CNN was crying about Michigan and Florida, and Hillary brought it up, too.

“I am running to be the present of all of America: north, south, east, and west, and everywhere in between. That’s why it is so important that we count the votes of Florida and Michigan.”

Everyone knows she’s trying to change the rules late into the game. Whining about seating the illegitimate delegates from Michigan and Florida won’t get it done for Hillary.

She’s done.