After 54 contests, the Democratic primary season is over and Barack Obama is the party nominee. A combination of super-delegate pledges and elected delegates from the primaries in South Dakota and Montana.

It was quite a contrast hearing speeches from Obama, John McCain and Hilary Clinton tonight. McCain is not a good stump speaker by no means and he just seemed awful giving that stilted speech punctuated by what looked like forced grins. His small audience seemed older than he was and by God did he looked old on television. Clinton remained defiant to the end and barely acknowledged that Obama existed let alone that he has become the presumptive nominee. Totally ungracious in a speech that was totally about herself and little of the party or of the future.

Obama gave another masterful speech. Far more gracious than he should have been to Clinton, he outlined the differences between himself and McCain in stark terms and he has set the tenor in how this election will go forward. It was a strong speech dedicated to his grandmother, full of hope for the future for a better country and a better world.

So how did Obama managed to achieve this outstanding victory? No doubt in large part to his charismatic personality and eloquence but he also worked hard for it and had an exceptional team that out organised, out managed and out campaigned every other campaign out there Democratic or Republican. Clinton managed to have a strong showing in the later part of the campaign only due to her force of personality and high name recognition in the states that were demographically more favorably disposed towards her than Obama.

It was helpful for Obama too to have some luck on his side. A strong showing by Edwards in the early primaries drew off support for Clinton and gave Obama a chance to establish himself. Poor organisation by Clinton in not having a plan after February 5th also worked well. With some many states in play on the same day, Obama could take advantage of the primaries rules and worked on states in which he had no competition. While she crowed about her big wins in New York and California, on the delegate side, Obama was racking impressive totals in the smaller states. At the end of the night, he won more states and more net delegates an advantage that he never really yielded after that date. For Clinton, the inability to do anything after the Feb 5th primaries gave Obama the unbeaten string of 11 primary wins which gave him the momentum to start becoming the front runner and made people seriously think of him as a president.

Other factors like the proportional primaries that diminished the impact of the big state wins that Clinton had and even the botched moves by Florida and Michigan to move up their primaries and ended up costing Clinton much needed delegates and momentum all had a role to play.

In the end, though, it is all about the man. That man in Barack Obama