Alex hit the nail on the head: It was a very long, drawn out and at times bitter primary fight.

There was no way the supporters of one candidate or the other weren't going to feel crushed if their candidate wasn't the winner. As a result of such a situation, the emotions ran a little raw at times and things clearly got heated. Not necessarily between the candidates themselves, both of whom are the consummate professionals but rather with some of their staunchest supporters. I know I was guilty of it and I'm sure there are many others who were too! That emotional reaction prevented me and many others from both camps from realizing that in the grand scheme of things this was the best thing that could happen to the democrats.

It's similar to college football where the undefeated team from a weaker conference plays a team with a couple of losses from a much better conference. Not always but almost always the team from the stronger conference wins in dominating fashion (think Georgia-Hawaii last year). Why? Because they've been tested and prepared against much stonger competition. That was the difference so far in this campaign. With few exceptions (I'm hard pressed to think of any off-hand) Obama hasn't had to face anything from McCain that he didn't already have to deal with to some degree in the Dem primaries. McCain on the other hand was the winner by default so early he hardly ever took a punch (a few sparring sessions with Romney don't count), much less have to get up off the canvas and fight back harder against a skilled and capable opponent. We he faced one (just like those undefeated teams from weak competition) he didn't have a plausible response. He couldn't gain a consistent footing and he's been withering under the sustained and accurate attack that he hasn't had to face before. All he could do was lash out wildly in response hoping something would work. Meanwhile, Obama has taken his lumps already and was able to competently and strategically use his advantages while knowing how to defend his weaknesses. He wouldn't have been nearly as effective at it if he hadn't had to face Senator Clinton the way he did. The fact that their battle was the main event for so long also meant that the public (yes, a lot of republicans and independents were following the dem primary) already had some exposure to many of Obama's perceived weaknesses. This made them much less damaging when McCain tried to use them since they really weren't breaking any new ground. Last night brought that into a much brighter spotlight. I don't think just Obama supporters were thinking of McCain "That's it?! That's ALL you've got???" when he went on the attack since so much of it was old news.

Another example of this would be the McCain campaign's consistent habit of telegraphing it's punches. That's a trait of an amateur who hasn't had to face a professional counterpuncher before. Against a good fighter you simply can't get away with such a flaw, but you would only know you have that flaw if you've been in a fight against a good fighter before. Another trait is that after taking a good punch, McCain gets angry and loses his discipline. Another fatal flaw against a good fighter. On the other hand, Obama has had to face all of this before and not only knew his flaws but had to learn how to overcome them against a very skilled fighter. Again, I thank Hillary for that. I'm not saying he didn't have those skills before but having to hone them into a razor-sharp edge before taking on McCain made him a much, MUCH better candidate and has enabled him to take advantage of McCain's weaknesses much more effectively.