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Democratic Dueling

Emboldened Obama Slips the Gloves Off

By Gregor Peter Schmitz in Chicago

Obama won more states than Clinton on Super Tuesday, but he had to concede defeat in the populous states of New York and California. And there was something new about his speech last night, too, as he peppered his usual rhetoric of change talk with direct jabs at Clinton for the first time.

Auditions were being held on Tuesday in Chicago's Hyatt-Regency hotel. New York University's theater department and the Yale School of Drama are hosting the selection. Nervous boys and girls in costumes and makeup jostle each other in the hallway. They quietly repeat their lines over and over again.

At the same time, deep within the hotel's Riverside Conference Center, a completely different drama is unfolding. Security personnel are setting up metal detectors, police dogs are sniffing out all the corners, and workmen are checking the last screws of the presidential-blue shield advertising "Change."

They are preparing the stage for Barack Obama, who is auditioning for the role of his life. The role is that of a presidential hopeful who is no longer just talking about uniting Americans, but who also wants to show he can win elections anywhere in America.

The Role of a Lifetime

At a little past 11 p.m. local time, Obama can finally play this role. By now, the television stations have already declared him the victor in 13 states, with overwhelming leads in some of them. On the East Coast, on the West Coast, in the South and in the Midwest. Straight across the "United States of America," as Obama always stresses in his speeches.

Wearing a blue suit and with his wife Michelle standing at his side in red, the senator steps on stage in the conference room overflowing with thousands of supporters. On the bleachers behind him jostle young people -- whites, blacks, Latinos.

Obama takes a quick breath and says: "Our time has come." And then he launches into his tried-and-true, poetic speech about his bid for the White House, which started with a whispering in the cornfields of Iowa. "We will write a new chapter in American history. We will use this moment," he calls out before the audience responds with loud chants of "USA, USA."

Broken Expectations

This was the day that the Clintons had dubbed "Super Duper Tuesday" at the beginning of the campaign, and this was the day that was supposed to be Hillary's early coronation ceremony, the day that would allow her to quickly move on to concentrate on the duel she would fight with the Republicans in November. Things have not gone according to plan.

Granted, Hillary has made some important headway in fighting off the Obama campaign. She won Massachusetts, despite the fact that the state's prominent senators -- Ted Kennedy and John Kerry -- have recently been actively organizing for Obama's campaign. She also held on to the majority of the votes in California, the country's largest state, despite the fact that Obama had made a showing there the last few days before the vote with TV-talk-show legend Oprah Winfrey in tow. In addition, Clinton won in the populous states of New York and New Jersey.

Nevertheless, she was forced to cede important states, including Missouri and Connecticut -- and not only that. Up until this stage, election observers had always found something to criticize in Obama's victories -- either his voters were too young, too educated or too masculine, as in Iowa. Or, as in South Carolina, they were too black. This time, too, Obama won about 80 percent of the black vote. In many places, though, he also won about 40 percent of white votes.

The Appeal of Change

But, above all, Obama has now been able to find the campaign slogan that dominates everything: change. Surveys indicate that almost 50 percent of Democratic voters believe this is the most important issue. And 70 percent of them believe that Obama is the best representative for this change. Despite the fact that she has now started to sprinkle the word "change" into every other sentence she speaks, Clinton has been unable to tear the slogan away from him. This hasn't been lost on American voters, either, even as they have shifted their focus from worries about the Iraq war to the worsening economic situation.

During the same speech in the hotel on Tuesday night, Obama also says: "It's time for a clean break. It's time to turn a new page." In a shift from his usual victory speeches, he then uses the opportunity to launch thinly veiled attacks against Clinton: "Americans must have a choice: between someone who's taken more money from lobbyists than anyone ever has and someone who hasn't taken a penny from lobbyists; between someone who voted for the Iraq war and someone who protested against it." His audience is rapt, chanting "We want change!" And one particularly frenetic supporter even gets so carried away as to call him "Mr. President."

The Rounds Ahead

That kind of celebration is a bit premature. The Obama-Clinton duel will apparently go the full distance of the primary marathon. To secure the nomination, one of them will have to get the backing of 2,025 delegates at the Democratic National Convention in Denver. At this point, neither of them has yet to secure over a quarter of that number. A new, 10-day round of primaries will already start this coming Saturday, and more than 500 more delegates will be allotted. These primaries will be held in places such as Louisiana and the District of Columbia where -- owing to his good standing among African-Americans -- Obama should perform rather well.

The Clinton team, on the other hand, is resting its hopes on the March 4 votes in the large states of Ohio and Texas, where Hispanic voters are very influential and economic issues are most important. Obama clearly has a bigger campaign war chest at his disposal than Clinton does. In January alone, he brought in $32 million (€21.7 million) in funds, as opposed to her $13 million (€8.8). And, so far at least, the primaries have underscored one thing: The more the voters get to know Obama, the better he performs in this election.

Later on Tuesday evening, the signs put out in the Hyatt Regency for the fans of the young actors are cleared away. One floor down, Obama has been allowed to play his first big role. But the auditions aren't over yet.