In the Final Primary, McCain Partook, Hillary Played Host, Obama Endured

If Barack Obama is to become the next American President, he''ll show us now how he''ll cope with a crisis. In the forms of an attacking GOP presumptive nominee John McCain and an unrelenting challenger Hillary Clinton, Sen. Obama''s historic presumptive nomination was stripped of all its potential glamor and history Tuesday night. Here''s what McCain and Hillary did to crash his final-primary party and here''s how Obama endured his uninvited guests.

On stage in New Orleans, LA, McCain went first with a speech that lacked the trappings and nuance of a first-tier candidate. Handlers had thought to Screen the scene of one Bush Administration FUBAR and had surely told him to be happy. He was mechanical, and it was a badly-managed Peacock , played early in the evening to set the tone and Recast + Bait the young Mr. Obama.

But on paper, the plays came in hard: I''m a change guy, too, the veteran Arizona Senator proposed. The right kind of change guy. Later, he attempted a feeble Preempt : Obama says over and over that I''m the Bush 3rd term. He says it because he knows it''ll take repeating to make you believe it. Get it...repeating! Ha...ha...ha!

Next came Hillary Clinton, speaking from New York City, in what history will record as the power-play of the 2008 race -- an unvarnished, unbelieveable Bait . A day before she''d launched the Trial Balloon to public scrutiny (and the Ping to redirect her supporters) that she''d be open to being Obama''s VP. So the trap was set. The media was piqued. Her voters were preped. All she had to do was state and restate the facts, however pertinent -- We''ve won the popular vote. We''ve won the swing states. And don''t forget what we did in West Virginia, Kentucky, Puerto Rico and South Dakota. And to keep her team in the news and Obama''s first-black-nominee headline out of it, she told us -- I won''t be making any decisions tonight.

It was, and as of this writing still is, all about Hillary. She has competed for every inch the primary game will give her. And now, do you doubt, that her reference to RFK was accidental? Hillary Clinton, we contend isn''t playing for VP. She''s playing for the co-presidency. She is, the evidence of her many plays suggest, just that good. And just that ruthless.

For his part, Barack Obama did what he does best -- he spoke. At length. Powerfully, with historic flair, and from St. Paul and the site of this fall''s GOP convention -- a Screen not unlike McCain''s New Orleans earlier gig. But in most respects, he Passed on the baiting plays of Sen. Clinton, ignoring the implication that Hillary''s been cheated and that she should be nominated too. In contrast, he happily snapped at McCain''s careful insults. "I''ll respect his accomplishments, even if he chooses to deny mine," he quipped .

Of course he delivered his own version of Change. Recast after recast, he reminded us -- that Change is not about supporting a war that shouldn''t have been waged. Clever huh...war''s not change! And on the plays that have pinned him, he ran unconvincing Red Herrings -- John McCain has talked about taking trips to Iraq. But if he came into our own backyards, he''d know what Change really means.

McCain and Obama are now the main players. But Hillary is not gone. Nor is her own brand of audacity. She will play for no lower billing than as Obama''s Great Enabler. And if he let''s her onto the ticket, she''ll bring her own chair and photographer to the Oval Office. The plays for the presidency are, indeed, all about Hillary for she is the better playmaker by far.

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Posted by Alan Kelly