Net Results

Illinois Sen. Barack Obama proved Tuesday night, in the wake of his primary win in Wisconsin, that he knows one basic fact about national campaigning: If the TV networks are going to give you lots of free air time, take it.

Speaking at a packed rally at a sports arena in Houston -- where he shifted his campaign in advance of the key Texas primary scheduled for March 4 -- Obama acknowledged the win in Wisconsin (which gave him a nine-event winning streak in primaries and caucuses held after the Feb. 5 Super Tuesday contests). But he mostly gave his stump speech, in typically dynamic style, that ran to about 45 minutes ... and which some networks carried at length.

While Obama's comments about Arizona Sen. John McCain -- the virtually certain Republican nominee -- were not new to him, they did create a bit of a sense of a long-distance debate. McCain earlier in the evening, in remarks to supporters in Columbus, Ohio, following his own Tuesday win in Wisconsin, had leveled barely veiled criticisms at Obama as too inexperienced -- especially on defense and foreign policy matters -- to be president.

"I revere and honor his service to this country, he is a genuine American hero," Obama said of McCain, who was a Vietnam War POW. "But when he embraces George Bush's failed economic policies, when he says he's willing to send our troops into another 100 years in Iraq, then he represents the policies of yesterday and I want to be the candidate of tomorrow. And I'm looking forward to having that debate with John McCain."