Which is to say, of course, HE DIDN'T.
Dude won more states... more delegates... competed on a national stage without the help of his strong suit, retail, hand shaking, speech making, politics.
He came out of last night slightly up in the ELECTED DELEGATE count, heading into three weeks of primaries that he's got a real shot of running the table on.
So why then is the national media spinning last night as the rise of Hillary Clinton?
Expectations.
And we were part of setting the poisoned Punji sticks in our own dissonance trap.
So, Obama supoorters, shut your fucking pie hole...
...about the next six polls that say that Barack Obama will win Louisiana and Washington State and the Virgin Islands and any other primary or caucus or school board election or cake walk or even a raffle at your local Pick and Save for a twenty pound ham.
We posted the exit polls that said he was going to win New Jersey and maybe Massachusetts, then, when he didn't, it overshadowed the fact that he won Connecticut and Delaware and Minnesota and Missouri.
Missouri?
Six weeks ago if I told you he was going to win Missouri you'd have flipped your lid, done a jig and French kissed a wart hog.
Last night... Ho. Hum... and the wart hog goes home with blue-ball.
We created diaries entitled "Barack to win it all tomorrow?" and "Obama on the verge of the nomination?" and "Could the Senator From Illinois Walk on Water?"
Given the proportional system none of that was going to happen, but when we set the table and put on your best dress and decide to pull the REALLY NICE underwear our of the back of the drawer it always hurts that much more.
And with every boast and promise and argument that Barack Obama will sweep the weekend we make it more and more impossible for any favorable narrative to emerge.
Because then if he wins... it will then be about how much.
"Obama, who was heavily favored in Louisiana, only managed to squeak out a bare five point victory. Clinton survives, looks toward Texas."
"Obama insiders believed they could deal a crushing blow in the Washington caucuses, but Clinton battled to him to a tie. Is she starting to rise again?"
You want him as the nominee?
For the next five days it should be all about how Hillary's going to win Louisiana, because she has to.
For the next five days its about how there are two women senators in Washington and therefore she has a natural institutional advantage.
For the next five days its about how this is a dead heat with Obama trying to claw his way forward.
For the next five days he is the proverbial ten points down and fighting.
(Because that was lead up Iowa and that was the lead up to South Carolina and we see what happened there.)
What happens will happen, but we have some small piece in picking out the matting and the frame and preparing the "what happens" to be mounted on the wall.
In the expectations game... until the end of the day Saturday...
*****
SYFPH, Exit Polls
SYFPH, Identity Politics
SYFPH, The Original