‘Fight Is Over’: Clinton Needed Big Victory, Obama Emerged on Top

ABC’s Rick Klein, with Mike Elmore, blog in today’s Note: The question that is now astoundingly close to being the most urgent one in the presidential race: Does Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton see a distinction between the good of the Clintons, the good of the Democratic Party, and the good of the country? On the night that Clinton needed a resounding victory, it was Sen. Barack Obama who emerged on top — and, by bouncing back from the biggest challenge to his candidacy, went a long way toward answering the questions that had left him battered and bruised (not even counting what happened on the basketball court. Clinton, D-N.Y., lost precious ground in delegates, votes, and momentum — with margins that all-but wiped out her pick-ups from Pennsylvania two weeks ago. They both won a state, but Obama’s was bigger, and was called far earlier; under the Wright-infused circumstances (and given the Clinton Campaign’s intense late efforts) his margin in North Carolina was jaw-dropping, while hers in Indiana was jaw-clenching. Continue reading the Note here.