Barack Obama: The Democratic Nominee for President

[courtesy of The California Majority Report]

Under the collective denial mentality that has hijacked media-types and political observers since the February 5th contests, Senator Barack Obama's decisive 56-42 win in North Carolina juxtaposed with Senator Hillary Clinton's narrow 51-49 win in Indiana shows Senator Obama has successfully rebounded from the Rev. Wright controversy and whatever other manufactured non-policy outrages that he's been forced to address. After all, Obama increased his popular vote lead by about 250,000 votes, and more importantly, his 95 new pledged delegates put him 12 delegates further ahead of Clinton. To borrow a catchphrase from former Democratic Senator Joe Lieberman, Obama's got O-mentum. However, while O-mentum may play a role on the margins, the reality is this contest is already over, and these outcomes were largely predetermined.

Obama has formed a coalition that includes a majority of new and young voters, African Americans, Greater New England white men, people with college degrees, and independents. This makes his victory in North Carolina -- with its large African American, student, and professional populations -- unsurprising. Clinton has formed a coalition that includes a majority of working class Deep South and Appalachian whites, women, the elderly, and Hispanics. This makes her victory in Pennsylvania -- with its large population of elderly and working class whites -- again, unsurprising. Indiana has a healthy mix of both coalitions, which meant it was a close race that could have gone either way. Clinton squeaked it out by the slimmest of margins, but that doesn't matter.

The Democratic presidential primary is over. Senator Barack Obama is our nominee. It didn't end last night, although many of the pundits that dragged us along for this performance will try and tell us differently. This race has been over for weeks.

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