It's Over

10.40 Obama's speech. A reminder of what a good thing it is that he might be next president of the United States and that Hillary won't be.  His treatment of Hillary was gracious and generous - quite a contrast with her treatment of him - unless you think it was gracious of her to claim victory and congratulate him on his strong but futile efforts - bizarre. 

A very significant aside, I think about a future role for Hillary - it'll be the health care portfolio not the vice presidency. What a wonderful idea! To see Hillary condemned forever, like Sisyphus, to push that particular rock up that particular slope. And if by some chance she succeeds she will have deserved the nomination in some future contest.

The rest of the speech was the usual stuff - a lot of very uplifting oratory but not much of substance, a few swipes at McCain.  one thing springs to mind - the progress in Iraq is so marked now that, irony of ironies, he might well be able to draw down troops early next year if he becomes president after all. Ironic that the surge he opposed has been so successful it will enable him to execute the policy he claimed was needed in its stead. 

9.55 Hillary's speech - NO DECISIONS TONIGHT. Well, that was not quite the climax we had hoped for.  It's a bit rich. to be honest. Obama has now secured the delegates he needs to be the nominee and she won't acknowledge that but instead says she'll think about it.  I'm reminded of Emperor Hirohito's words to the Japanese people as he looked over the destruction of his country "The war has gone not necessarily to our advantage." But even Hirohito surrendered in the end. 

And as a secondary thought - I don't think Hillary's no-concession concession speech will have done her prospects of the vice-presidency much good at all.

9.30om I'll miss these Tuesday nights, nursing a long night cap, surfing and watching till the early hours as the pundits dissect the latest Democratic primary, and adding my own poorly constructed and ill-informed ruminations.  The next Tuesday Night Voters Club meeting will be November 4th - quite a big day, all things considered.  But in the meantime  we have one last night to savour.

My own thoughts on the historic nature of this night are elsewhere in the newspaper and online and I won't repeat them here.   So a few other thoughts:

This was an astonishing primary.  I doubt there has ever been a contest this close. In the end it came down to a few thousand votes out of almost 40 million.  Hillary Clinton finished strongly and this must be a source of great concern to Obama. She won a clear majority of the late primaries and he truly owes his victory to his exceptional organisational strength in the caucus states. That only enhances the sense that Obama is the candidate of the motivated elite who drive party politics, not the casually interested voters who actually determine elections.

That said, I think Obama will have no difficulty winning over those voters.  The war, the economy are likely to be bigger deals than concerns about the man's elitism. The racism question is another one entirely and no-one has a really good sense how it will be resolved. My own hunch is that it is likely to be outweighed by more wholesome political differences.

Hillary as veep. No Freaking Way.  He would be utterly crazy. Bill Clinton's performance this week (never mind that the Vanity Fair article that sent him over the top was indeed pretty outrageous) was a reminder of just how dreadful would be the prospect of those people back in the White House, I'm afraid the man has undone all the goodwill he has earned in the last eight years and he would be a millstone around Obama's neck - and I haven't even mentioned Hillary.

McCain's preemptive speech was terrible. I'll have more to say about this later in the week in my column. But I really worry that it signals McCain has decided to run not as the unifying, bipartisan figure that he has been throughout his career - the great American we know him to be -  but as merely the latest iteration of the Republicnan attack machine.  it just won't work. And if by some chance it does, will McCain really want the Pyrrhic Victory such a slash and burn strategy will have brought him?