As I watched Barack Obama, with his wife and two daughters, cross the stage at his Iowa rally last night, I got to admit I thought, “How awesome would it be if this was the first family?”. Last night, Obama returned to the state whose primary acted as a crystal ball of what the rest of his campaign would look like. Last night Obama broke a significant barrier last night, earning a majority of pledged delegates. What makes this even more important is the fact that many unpledged delegates have said that they will go for whoever has the majority. In this case Obama.

But playing it smart, Obama didn’t say that it was over. Instead in Iowa last night he played the perfect Democrat politician, expressing his solidarity with the family of ailing Ted Kennedy, lavishing praise on Hillary Clinton, and saying the nomination of his party was within reach.

Watching the pundits last night as Hillary won the Kentucky primary and Obama won the Oregon primary, it really was amazing to watch the different views of realities presented. For some the strategy was how to get all those whites/women/older people people who love Clinton so much to Obama’s side (although the Obama loving Iowa crowd looked pretty white to me). Pundits claimed “Get Chelsea to campaign for Obama”. Yeah, I can see that happening. Others say that Hillary isn’t out of the game yet and others emphasized focusing on McCain as the opposition.

I think what surprised me most, ok not really, coming out of the Kentucky exit polls, was how about half of voters said they would vote for the Democratic nominee if it were not Hillary (meaning Barack). Half! That’s not a small number.

What’s the saying? It’s not over till the white lady sings? Ok I know that’s not it but we’ll see how much longer this drags out. Just get me to the convention already.

Image Via / NYT