The first days of the 2008 general election campaign following Barack Obama's nomination victory this week appear thus far to strongly favor the young senator from Illinois. Streaking out of the gate Tuesday night as polls closed in South Dakota and Montana, Obama celebrated victory with a rousing speech that more than befit the historic occasion of his night as America's first African American presidential nominee. Republican nominee John McCain, meanwhile, gave an ungracious, pandering, and downright ugly speech in which he refused either to congratulate Obama himself or to recognize the significance of his victory for African Americans, choosing instead to begrudge Obama his "eloquence" and pander to angry Clinton supporters by suggesting that Obama owed his victory to "pundits and party elders." McCain's speech was widely panned by conservatives and liberals alike, who found fault with far more than the harsh, lime-green background against which we were treated to McCain's pasty visage and smarmy grin (see video). Conservative commentator Fred Barnes of FoxNews said that McCain's speech was "painful" to listen to, while on CNN Republican media consultant Alex Castellanos remarked: "Last I checked this was not a speech-making contest.... Thank God." CNN's Jeff Toobin said more bluntly of McCain's speech: "That was awful.... That was pathetic." Politico's Jonathan Martin asks, "Is there a way John McCain can win the presidency without giving another speech?" As McCain's lobbyist problem continues to haunt him, meanwhile, Obama has set a new course for the Democratic Party he now leads by declaring for the first time that, like his primary campaign, his Democratic National Committee will no longer accept campaign contributions from Washington lobbyists. As McCain fumbles, bumbles, and stumbles, Obama strides proud and strong toward the Oval Office. Offhand, I'd say this looks like a damn good way to start a general election campaign.