Barack Obama is speaking to a packed auditorium in Wisconsin right now, more or less taking the opportunity of winning the Potomac Primary to pivot from the Democrat race to the general election. That’s surely the tone, since he’s ignoring Hillary Clinton and attacking John McCain, the war in Iraq, and Republican policies.

Once he’s finished I’ll cut some and post it here. I’m struck by how Mondalian he sounds. And how easy he’s finding it to twist McCain’s words on the “100 years” comment. He’s shedding his Mr. Clean image to launch a fairly negative string of attacks on McCain, whom he just praised as a hero for opposing tax breaks.

Interesting. He speaks with passion, but if most Americans tune in enough to hear what he actually says, he’s a weak candidate. Much weaker than I thought.

Now he’s talking about joining the Peace Corps or learning a foreign language to create the America “we dreamed of.” Why don’t liberals tout opening a business or joining the military?

If you’re watching this, chime in with your reaction to this speech. He’s not disguising his hard leftism anymore.

Update: While I’m processing the video, a few thoughts. John McCain will have his work cut out for him against Obama. In any normal year, Obama would be weak, but this is no normal year. Add in the fact that McCain is about twice as old as Obama and the fact that, as you’ll see in the video, Obama skillfully uses McCain’s own class warfare words against him and then slyly hits McCain for accepting the reality that the expiration of tax cuts equals a tax hike, and you have the makings of an uphill fight for the Mac. Then add in McCain’s own weaknesses with his own party…ugh. Obama is Jimmy Carter on steroids when it comes to policy, but he is Bill Clinton without baggage on the personal side.

Update: Still processing the video. Here’s McCain’s now infamous “100 years in Iraq” remark, which in context makes sense. He’s saying that as long Iraq is our ally and we’re not just stuck in a war there, if we can help them out and if they want us around, being there for a long time is not a bad thing. He compares it to South Korea and Japan, where we have had troops for decades at the request of host governments. Not, as Ron Paul says, because we’re an “empire.” That’s idiotic.

Update: Here’s an edit of Obama’s speech tonight. For a candidate who keeps talking about always looking forward, he sure spends a lot of time engaging in recriminations over the past. It’s fair, of course, to point out differences etc, but the way he does it doesn’t match his lofty rhetoric about bringing everyone together and writing a new chapter in American history.