Obama scores big victory in North Carolina, nips at Clinton's heels in Indiana

Obama Makes Strides on Election Night:

With an unexpectedly large margin of victory, Senator Barack Obama scored an impressive victory in North Carolina's Democratic Primary, today. In Indiana, which also held its contest, Hillary Clinton looks headed to an expected victory, though with a margin that some supporters will find concerning.

With 69% of precincts reporting, Clinton held a slender 6% edge over Obama, with many parts of Indianapolis, a stronghold for the Illinois Senator, yet to report. While a closer than expected finish in Indiana is unlikely to drive Clinton from the race, it will cast further doubt on her already unlikely chances of edging Senator Obama in the contest for the Democratic nomination.

Speaking to an enthusiastic crowd of supporters in North Carolina, Obama tailored his comments to the emotions of worried voters, who've seen their financial situations come under increasing strain in the midst of rising oil and food prices. His message was one of unity and hope, a reversion to the initial passionate appeal that won over the optimistic side of voters in the Senator's initial triumph in Iowa, more than four months ago.

He spoke of transcending bitterness and deception and achieving a politics of aggressive and unabashed truth-telling. Only this way, he said, can the type of progressive change so badly needed to change the political environment of nay-saying and no-can-do, be achieved. He told listeners of his biography and how, despite his flaws, he could not have become the person he is today without totally capitalizing on the American Dream that the blue-collar workers, whose votes have so far largely eluded him, hold so dear.

Tonight may have not been the night when Obama secured the Democratic nod with a Clinton withdrawal, but his speech sounded more a general election tone, and those across the country who saw the ferocity in Obama's eyes and heard the passion in his tone saw a candidate ready to take on John McCain come November and assume the Oval Office come 20 January.