Reassurance

Well, I got the floor vote I wanted, and it was even better theater than I hoped. I didn't expect such a massive shift toward party unity from Clinton's people—I knew it was a fine, new story when Arkansas cast its votes unanimously for Obama. Hillary delivered. The big distraction of the Democratic campaign is done. Some journalists will continue picking neurotically at the scab, but from now on the kindest thing we can do is pretend not to notice.

The election from here on is actually pretty simple. The pundits will try to complicate it to create their daily little dramas, but it's simple. A solid majority of Americans want an administration significantly different from the current one, preferably Democratic. But a lot of them, maybe enough to tip the balance, have doubts about Obama: he's young, relatively inexperienced, connected to some lefties, sometimes a little vague and waffley when he talks, and pretty different from the usual model of president. Meanwhile, McCain's doing a decent job of presenting himself as different from Bush. So Obama's job is to convince voters that McCain isn't different from enough from Bush and that he himself is sober, competent, practical, and presidential enough to reassure them that he's worth taking a chance on. And his supporters' job is to back him up and spread the word.

Not nearly as exciting as what got us jazzed up back in January and February—renewal, transformation, the historic candidacy. But it's clear. And simple. And it won't really be that hard.