Obama Eludes Not Only Clinton, but Media

After a career of sober-minded policy politics, Hillary Clinton let loose her inner populist pol in Indiana and North Carolina, Joe Klein writes, and, like much of the media, he thought the showmanship-over-substance (along with Obama's pastor problem) might pull it out for her. But that "shameless populism" proved not to be a game-changer after all. She lost the contest—and the race, he concludes in a Time cover story anointing Obama as the nominee.

Barack Obama instead bet voters were sick of the “same-old,” and believed they’d see through the gas tax and Rev. Wright—and they did, Klein writes. Now he’s headed for a general election campaign that “doesn’t need hype.” It needs the press, and the politicians, to respect it. (More media stories.)