Obama Begins the General Election Campaign

I watched Obama's speech in Madison, WI in a packed arena (and more people in an overflow area) and he has clearly started the general election campaign. He never mentioned Hillary by name - only made some comments that could vaguely be directed at her. He did, however, mention John McCain several times as well as President Bush and his "cousin" Dick Cheney. The general election battle has now been joined by at least one side.

Fox News carried his speech nearly in its entirety after cutting off Hillary's speech after just a couple of minutes when she didn't address the primary contests she'd lost that day. Hillary remained on screeen, though silent, while Karl Rove explained the trouble her campaign was in. Not exactly the visuals she would have hoped for.

The networks think it's over too.

I also saw John McCain's victory speech. Instead of an arena full of screaming fans he had a small group of friends and supporters on his platform and maybe a couple hundred in the audience. McCain stumbled over his attempts at humor and he was clearly reading from a teleprompter. He's not an inspiring speaker - no soaring rhetoric or fancy phrases. He does provide a little more substance, but in a battle with Obama, he'll get creamed.

You better start getting used to the words "President Obama".