Over at TPMCafe, Jon Taplin writes the speech Obama can't give. * * * *

I want to speak tonight to the citizens of Indiana and North Carolina. You have it within your power to finally decide the nominee of the Democratic Party. If on May 6th, you decide to entrust the democratic nomination for the Presidency to me, then it will be mathematically impossible for my opponent to win a majority of the delegates. For the party insiders, the establishment built by the Clintons in the 90's, to overturn the will of the majority, would be a mockery of our party's heritage.

But on that day that you choose me, then I believe Mrs. Clinton would step aside seeing no route to the nomination. And I believe our party will be quickly unified to end the 8 disastrous years of Republican rule in the White House. John McCain offers the country four more years of George Bush's endless war. Four more years of pouring $12 billion a month into Iraq and Afghanistan instead of Americas crumbling infrastructure and schools. And four more years of financial crisis with the White House controlled by special interests and lobbyists. It's no secret that John McCain and his new found backers like Rush Limbaugh want to run against Hillary, not me. They don't want things to change.

Mrs Clinton promises she "will fight for you." But in the eight years of the first Clinton Presidency that she claims so much credit for--whose side did she take? Did the Clintons take the side of Big Media/Telecom in the 1996 Telecom act or did they take the side of the people? You know the answer. Did the Clintons take the side of the Big Drug companies so they could advertise prescription drugs or did they do the sensible thing and leave it up to doctors to decide what to prescribe? You know the answer. Did the Clintons take the side of Sandy Weil, when he merged his investment Bank/Insurance conglomerate Travellers/ SmithBarney with Citibank--against the rules of the Glass Steagall Act--or the side of the public, who now can't get credit to buy a house because of the oversecuritization of American finance that has crashed. You know the answer. I could go on about the Clintons and the big business wing (the DLC) of the Democratic Party. I could tell you that Hillary did her part to sell NAFTA and its only since she started running for President that she has pretended to be against the treaty. Now those of you who have heard me talk before, know that I believe in an America that embraces the green movement we can create new jobs that pay like the good jobs at the Suburu Plant in Lafayette Indiana or the good jobs in the research labs of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. But we've been losing those jobs since the late 1980's.

But to get to that place of real reform we will have to change the culture of Washington--and first place to make that change is within our own party. I have no doubt that we can unite the country because I sense this great desire for change everywhere I go. The question for you is do you really want to change America. And if you do, where would we start? I would start at the source of our current troubles--The War in Iraq.

Two of the people who held the power to take us into the War in Iraq are running against me....And you know what they did with that power. My opponent John McCain still believes he did the right thing and one of our clear differences will be over that vote. Mrs. Clinton, on the other hand says "she wishes she had the vote back", but refuses to take responsibility for her actions. It is time for a change because they both were wrong in that fateful decision to spill our blood and treasure on the sands of Iraq. It is time for a change.

North Carolina and Indiana--you both excel at my sport, Basketball. Lets make this our version of the Finals. If we finish strong, we can get on with the real work of this campaign which is ending the eight year nightmare of George Bush's rule. Thank you.

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