Tar Heels Deliver for Obama

Last week Senator Barack Obama took the court with the University of North Carolina Tar Heels basketball team. The Solon did not fair too well. Reports say he played about 10 minutes in a pick-up game and failed to score a basket. You might say he was over matched. But not yesterday; Obama came back to the Tar Heel State in triumph as he scored a decisive victory of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, winning by a margin of 56% to 42%.

In what has been a challenging week for the junior Senator from Illinois, the media, his opponents, and many voters skewered Obama for his association with the Reverend Jeremiah Wright. In the dynamic, and ever-fluid world of political polling, the last 8 days have been particularly volatile, as various polls projected the race, which at one point Obama led by 20+ points, anywhere from less than double digits, to a dead heat, to a slight edge for Senator Clinton. That Obama was able to re-center himself, recalibrate his message, and reclaim much of his formidable lead in North Carolina was indeed a significant achievement.

So thorough was this political beat down that when the polls closed yesterday at 7:30 p.m., CNN called the race in Obama’s favor. The lead was huge and would never shrink. All of this was important because both candidates put a great deal of stock in winning, or in Senator Clinton’s case, at least making a competitive showing. She did neither.

The Tar Heels, especially blacks, 91% of whom voted for Obama, new voters, and those with higher levels of education, turned out in dominating numbers for Obama Tuesday. His message of populism, change, and can-do spirit resonated in a powerful way.

I took advantage of the opportunity check out the phenomenon that is Obamamania last Friday, in person. The Senator is usually impressive on TV, if not debating at a podium, in print, with two New York Times Bestsellers, but tapping into the electric atmosphere that is generated when Barack takes center stage in the midst of thousands, as I did last Friday, is truly on another level.

A skilled orator who delivered a captivating Keynote Address at the 2004 Democratic National Convention at the Fleet Center in Boston, Barack Obama has continued to perfect “the Art of the Speech.” His cadence, timing, and phrasing remind one of the Masters. He is at his best when given range to just free-style with the mic. He’s not King…but he is definitely very, very good.

So how good is he? He is so good, that in a week when he was publicly labeled just a politician doing political things, by the man he refers to as his former spiritual leader, absorbed intra-party attacks from his chief rival for the Democratic Nomination, sustained direct hits from the opposition party and its presumptive nominee, and withstood countless scathing analyses, editorials, assessments, interviews, and questions from the media, he merely responded with tenacity and quiet confidence by slam-dunking the opposition in the North Carolina Primary.

What is clear, and what really has been apparent for some time, is that Obama has an imposing lead in delegates. With six primaries remaining (West Virginia, Kentucky, Puerto Rico, Oregon, Montana, and South Dakota), which account for approximately 220 delegates, and with Obama leading by nearly 150 delegates, it’s not mathematically impossible for Mrs. Clinton to catch him; just immensely improbable. Estimates are she would have to attain around 70% of the vote in each of the six remaining races to catch Mr. Obama.

Could that happen? If there is a perfect storm, and Mrs. Clinton embraces the tenets of “The Audacity of Hope,“ and Mrs. Obama renounces the “Dreams of her Father-in-law,” and the Reverend Wright launches a City-a-Day Tour to re-enact his National Press Club tirade, beginning today, and Barack Obama, after being apprised of all those developments, opts to take a 30-day vacation, effective immediately…then maybe. In other words, no!

That’s it; I’m done. Holla back!

Read my blog anytime by clicking the link: http://thesphinxofcharlotte.blogspot.com. A new post is published each Wednesday.


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