The Day After -- Obama's Big Night

I have to say, I'm quite pleased with last night's results. Oh, it could have been just a little bit better. Obama could have run away with Lake County and taken Indiana. But all in all, it was a great night. He won by 14% of the vote in North Carolina. That was about 6% better than the latest polls suggested. He lost e a little less than 2% in Indiana (about 18,000 or so votes). Hillary in the latest polls was up by 4-6%. Recent experience suggested that late deciders had chosen Hillary. That didn't happen this time.

A couple of things we can take away from this night:

• Barack Obama has the nomination in sight. He is about 184 delegates short at this moment. He is almost to the point where he has a majority of pledged delegates.
• He showed he could close.
• The people of Indiana and North Carolina could see pandering for what it is and didn't reward Hillary for her gas tax holiday -- a proposal that no credible economist backed nor did her colleagues in Congress. It was from the beginning a non-starter.
• Barack Obama needs to focus now on John McCain not Hillary Clinton. Hillary is now, unless she drops out, what Mike Huckabee was to John McCain. He wouldn't go away, but he couldn't win.
• Barack Obama is back on message. For the last couple of weeks Fightin' Hillary had him on his heels. But last night he got a second wind.
• Obama isn't inevitable, but darn near inevitable.

Now we wait to see what happens. Reports are that Clinton loaned herself some more money. If she has money problems how long can she go on -- and will people stop giving if it seems as if Obama has this under wraps? There are reports that some of her backers are calling for her to step aside. Will they succeed? And finally, what about the super delegates. Will the dam break? Oh, and Michigan and Florida. Now that things seem in hand, I'm assuming a deal will be brokered.

As for VP's -- I do think Michael Westmoreland-White is correct (see comment in earlier post) that Obama will need to pick a white male as a VP, probably someone from Hillary's camp. Ted Strickland of Ohio, might be a good choice, but he's also a first termer, which could be a problem. I had hoped for someone like Bill Richardson or Kathleen Sebelius. But realities are what they are!