Obama’s Victory, Clinton’s Endgame Cap Primaries

JUDY WOODRUFF:

That is syndicated columnist Mark Shields and New York Times columnist David Brooks.

Well, gentlemen, what struck you about the way this long Democratic contest ended last night? You had Barack Obama going over the top, David, but you also had a split win in the primaries in South Dakota and Montana, and you had Senator Clinton not conceding.

DAVID BROOKS, columnist, New York Times: Yes, I think it's the Senator Clinton not conceding that's, let's face it, the hottest thing that happened.

There's only one nominee. One guy has it. That means the other person doesn't have it. And she should have said something.

I know a lot of Democrats who were, frankly, mind-boggled that in her speech yesterday she did not come out and concede, did not embrace him. She used lines like, "People chose who would be the best commander-in-chief, and they voted for me," a line that was a Clinton line, has now become a McCain line.

People are — I know a lot of Democrats today who are appalled at what Senator Clinton did yesterday and really think she should have just done something very gracious and should do it quickly.

JUDY WOODRUFF:

Mark, is there another way to look at what she did?

MARK SHIELDS, syndicated columnist: Well, there's a way to look at it historically, Judy, and that is 1975, when Francisco Franco was lingering between this world and the next for weeks on end, and the joke in Barcelona at the time was, "There's good news and bad news about Franco. The good news is Franco's dead. The bad news is you have to tell him."

And that's the problem with the Clinton campaign. Somebody has got to tell them that it's over.

I thought Obama was incredibly magnanimous, generous. He started — he didn't cross the line of just praising her to the skies like a canonized saint, but I'd add to that the factor that what struck me is Obama really did stagger to the finish line. He won seven of the last 16 contests.

It came back to how important the war in Iraq vote had been. If he had not taken his position, if she had voted against the war in Iraq, it would have deprived him of the substantive rationale for his candidacy.

And it gave him — it galvanized support for him and it really was the key to his winning Iowa. And winning Iowa was the key to piercing and destroying the aura or at least the notion of invincibility and inevitability about the Clinton candidacy.

So, you know, we think about a vote cast in, what, six years ago and how important it was last night.

DAVID BROOKS:

And it was just a speech, in his case.

JUDY WOODRUFF:

And any other keys that come to mind today, the day after, David?

DAVID BROOKS:

Well, the staggering across the finish line — I mean, the odd thing about Obama is he gave a speech last night which I thought was a tremendously good speech. And the people are — there are thousands of people really moved and transported.

And you look at that speech, and you look at that crowd, and you think, "This guy is going to win 110 percent of the electorate."

But we've been through this story. He gives this speech. He does arouse this kind of response among certain people. But if you look at the national polls, he's tied with McCain.

If you look at the way independent voters look at him, in late February, 62 percent of independent voters had a favorable opinion of him. Now he's down to 49 percent. He's running way behind his party at the moment.

He'll probably pick up now that he's got this glow of victory, but he's not a candidate, considering where his party is versus the Republican Party, he's not a candidate rolling through the fall with a big burst of wind.