Daily Polichicks - Tuesday (Election Night Edition)

(Yikes!  We fell asleep while posting last night.  So the updated version of this Tuesday night edition was actually posted Wednesday morning.)

The Dems held their final two primaries tonight in Montana and South Dakota.  Here's the news of the night:

• The big news tonight - the historic news - is that Barack Obama is the presumptive nominee of the Democratic party.  He will be the the first African American to secure the presidential nomination of a major political party. [The Washington Post]

• Hillary Clinton won the primary in South Dakota (55% to 45%), and Barack Obama won Montana (56% to 41%) .

• Sen. John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee, wasn't about to let tonight be all about the Democrats. He kicked off the general election by making a speech from Kenner, LA, in which he gave a shout out to Hillary Clinton's supporters (as in, if you don't like the O Man, come vote for me) and distanced himself from frenemy President Bush.  He also picked on Barack Obama a bit, calling him a lightweight (well, he is kinda skinny) and the L-word. (No, not a lesbian. A liberal.) [The New York Times]       (We have to note that while we were watching McCain's speech, MSNBC pre-empted it to announce that Barack Obama is the presumptive nominee of the Democratic party. Doh! McCain just can't compete with the Dems when it comes to getting press attention.)

• Hillary Clinton addressed her supporters in South Dakota.  She congratulated Barack Obama and his suppoters on their "extraordinary campaign," adding, "Senator Obama has inspired so many Americans to care about politics and empowered so many more to get involved, and our party and our democracy is stronger and more vibrant as a result."  A concession speech, you say?  Umm.. not exactly.  Clinton also spoke of the 18 million people who voted for her, said that she's won the popular vote (according to her math), said that she has won more votes than any other presidential primary candidate in history (again, according to her math), and encouraged her supporters to go to her website to share what they think her next steps should be. So she's still in the race. Round and round and round she goes; where she stops, nobody knows. [The Huffington Post]

• Barack Obama rolled up on John McCain's turf last night: he gave his victory speech in the same venue in St. Paul, MN, where John McCain will give his acceptance speech during the upcoming Republican convention.  He said some nice things about Hillary Clinton and indicated that that her loss tonight will not be the last time that we hear from her ("...you can rest assured that when we finally win the battle for universal health care in this country, she will be central to that victory"). Now of course Obama had a few words for rival John McCain:  "It's not change when John McCain decided to stand with George Bush 95 percent of the time, as he did in the Senate last year. It's not change when he offers four more years of Bush economic policies that have failed to create well-paying jobs." As usual, Obama closed by getting all inspirational and profound on us: "America, this is our moment.  This is our time.  Our time to turn the page on the policies of the past.  Our time to bring new energy and new ideas to the challenges we face.  Our time to offer a new direction for the country we love."  [BarackObama.com]