It's a result that few would've guessed when this race for the nomination began far too long ago -- Sen. Barack Obama, a candidate with just over two years of experience in the Senate, has won the Democrat Party nod. The victory is as much testament to Obama's campaign as it is to Sen. Hillary Clinton's baggage [read: Bill].

I must confess that Democrats befuddle me -- and it's not just their policy pronouncements and their misguided belief that if we just throw more tax money at whatever problem there is, that'll solve it eventually. I'm befuddled by the fact that they would nominate a candidate with so little experience. A candidate that they don't really know much about -- and I'm not talking about his policy positions -- I'm talking about the man. The best glimpses we have about Obama the man is who he has chosen to surround himself with, and from Father Michael Pfleger to Rev. Jeremiah Wright to fixer Tony Rezko, you'd think those would raise some red flags.

But it didn't. Why? Largely, I attribute it to a press that has served not as a watchdog for the public, but as a rooting section for a charismatic man who seemed destined to make history as the first black nominee for president of a major party in this nation's 200+ year history. Obama has had a free pass. That may not continue in the general election when you have 527 organizations doing the job that the press hasn't seemed interested in doing.

And when it's all said and done, Obama very well might be our next president. I think he'd be a Carter-level disaster, but there are plenty of Americans who have given their souls to Obama -- with the result being their brains falling out.

It's not a sure thing, of course, and I think that Victor Davis Hanson has it right when he points out that the GOP may have nominated the only man who can win the presidency in an electoral atmosphere that seems destined to suffocate the Republicans, and the Democrats may have nominated the only man who can blow the inherent advantages that the Democrats have.

The next few months promise to be a little more interesting. Sure, the press will do a disservice to the electorate and use polls, gaffes and the horse race far too much as "news." However, there are serious and substantive differences between Obama and McCain that weren't there when it was Obama vs. Clinton.