Her Ohio victory assured, Hillary Clinton thanked her erupting supporters tonight as “Land of Hopes and Dreams” began cranking through the PA. As I now listen dispassionately to essentially a concession speech by Barack Obama, I think he should also close with a song made famous by Bruce Springsteen oratory, but penned in the background by Elvis Costello: “Brilliant Disguise.”

In the past few days in different discussions about today’s tilt, I expressed my dismay over the Obama controversy involving a meeting between Canadian officials and Austan D. Goolsbee, a professor of economics at the University of Chicago and Mr. Obama’s senior economic policy adviser. At first the campaign denied the meeting took place, then had to uh, baraktrack after a memo documenting the meeting surfaced.

According to the memo by a Canadian attendee, Professor Goolsbee assured the Canadians that Mr. Obama’s anti-NAFTA stance, primarily in job-strapped Ohio, was “more reflective of political maneuvering than policy,” and “should be viewed as more about political positioning than a clear articulation of policy plans.”

That meeting in Canada has been largely dismissed in the Obama worshiping press, but I think it cost him Ohio tonight. “Just words” about NAFTA may have been only political posturing to Mr. Obama, but it is perceived by those seeing their unemployment benefits end as the reason their lives are unraveling.

I and many others have supported Mr. Obama because he was different. He was not just another pol. Now I wonder, “Is that you, baby, or just a brilliant disguise?”