It’s over. Period. Obama’s vote totals in both North Carolina and Indiana came in better than polls predicted even the day before the election. Unless some truly bizarre revelation surfaces in the next month, something on the order of confirmed accounts of recent pederasty, the campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination is in the bag.

Over the last couple of months Obama has faced real challenges, with Jeremiah Wright  demonstrating his absolute lack of sense and Clinton going for the jugular, but last night’s results show he has the legs to get past that. Both these elements put Obama on the defensive, and distorted the message that put him in the lead. That cost him significant momentum, momentum that will be needed later in the year. It’s time to get back on track.

It doesn’t matter how far out of contention Hillary is, she’s a pit bull and isn’t going to drop out until the last primary is over, if then. But it takes two to tangle, and I recommend that Obama consider the nomination his and get on with the real campaign, defeating John McCain. I see no reason for Obama to spend ten more seconds dealing with the Clintons.

If invited to a debate, he should accept only if McCain will be present. If Clinton attacks, he should simply ignore her. Yes he should continue campaigning in the remaining primary states, but only with his core message. His staff should start mapping out his national strategy, logging time in the big states he didn’t win, such as California, New York, Ohio, and Pennsylvania, because he’s going to need them in the election a lot more than he’s going to need any of the remaining primary states. Wisconsin and Florida have a lot of voters, and he hasn’t campaigned there yet.

Mr Obama, you have an election to win. It’s up to you to set your priorities, and now that you have beat Hillary, she isn’t be one of them.