McCain Clinches, Dem Disarray

Hillary fights back, Obama can't close. Now she's encouraging talk of a Clinton-Obama ticket to neuter Barack. That would be her solution to his empty resume and bring hope home to her. Good luck with that on the way to Wyoming, and Mississippi, and Pennsylvania, and North Carolina and maybe even Puerto Rico or the convention.

Thankfully the Huckster finally bowed out, with allusions to the Alamo that we could have been spared, but we remember the Alamo! so we'll give him a pass. John McCain kicked off the next phase of his run. WSJ:

In victory remarks in Dallas, Sen. McCain sounded his themes for the general election, saying he would stand firm against withdrawing from Iraq prematurely, limiting trade, raising taxes or "returning to the failed big-government mandates of the '60s and '70s" for programs such as health care.

McCain took on the bickering duo on policy and in conclusion chose his words well:

Americans aren't interested in an election where they are just talked to and not listened to; an election that offers platitudes instead of principles and insults instead of ideas; an election that results -- no matter who wins -- in four years of unkept promises and a government that is just a battleground for the next election. Their patience is at an end for politicians who value ambition over principle, and for partisanship that is less a contest of ideas than an uncivil brawl over the spoils of power.

Nothing is inevitable in America. We are the captains of our fate. We're not a country that prefers nostalgia to optimism; a country that would rather go back than forward. We're the world's leader, and leaders don't pine for the past and dread the future. We make the future better than the past. We don't hide from history. We make history. That, my friends, is the essence of hope in America, hope built on courage, and faith in the values and principles that have made us great.

The Dems have no monopoly on hope. Their message is in essence that America is a place of doom and gloom and we are all victims (however unlikely that appears for some). That will wear thin over the next several months, and there may be some unpleasant surprises here and there.

We Republicans will take our chances with McCain--he's been through a few tough times and emerged the stronger for it.

UPDATE: Trib editorial on Obama starts this way:

The heat on Sen. Barack Obama has risen in recent days. Choose your denunciation: He's an ingenue, he's a liar, he's a crook. And it won't stop there. Tuesday night's primary election returns ensure that he'll see more of the same rough treatment in the days and weeks ahead.

And this:

- Obama's greatest discomfort is self-inflicted. He's never submitted to a full vetting of his ties to indicted Chicago businessman Tony Rezko. This page repeatedly has urged him to do so, to no avail. That failure to fully engage the Rezko connection left Obama telling reporters Monday in Texas that he'd happily answer questions about Rezko -- even as he scooted off without answering many of those questions.

Rezko's trial now is the background music to Obama's campaign. And the volume surely will increase before it fades. About that vetting, Senator: Better late than never.

But will he survive that kind of scrutiny politically? Maybe in the Dem primary. Philip Klein, The American Spectator on Obama, "Kitchen Sinked". Jay Cost, the HorseRace Blog, on how Hillary won. Hillary's team makes their case.

UPDATE: Jonathan Martin, "McCain comes back to seize GOP nomination: Ben Smith, The Politico, "Clinton's Lesson: Attacking Obama Works". Obama gets fact-checked. Request by the Sun Times for Obama to call them gets picked up by the Instapundit. :) And once again, Obama needs to answer this specific question.