Obama inches closer (while still managing to get blown out)

No surprises tonight -- Hillary wins big in Kentucky, Obama does likewise in Oregon.  Obama inches closer to the inevitable nomination, no matter how hard Terry McAuliffe tries to spin it.

For the Democrats, however, it is a unsettling that their presumptive nominee continues to get blown out this late in the game.  Last week it was West Virginia; this week it's Kentucky.

It's a real sign of weakness that Obama is unable to connect with blue collar voters in battleground states, and it could portend a serious problem in states like Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Michigan.   He's not expected to win West Virginia and Kentucky in the fall, but he'll have to win at least two of the "big three" (MI, OH and PA) to have any chance.    

Whether or not John McCain can connect with these same voters the way Hillary Clinton has is an entirely different story.  So far McCain has not, and he has show little history in appealing to the working class demographic.   He needs to retool his focus and message -- essentially steal a page from Hillary Clinton's playbook -- if he wants to connect with those voters.

It's ironic that of the three remaining candidates, it's the one that won't be on the ballot in the fall -- Hillary Clinton -- who has been running the strongest campaign for the past  eight weeks.