‘He’s made his mark’

It was an up-and-down night in the heart of Barack Obama country, an exercise in expectations management from the campaign staff on down to the supporters milling around while the returns came in.

“I’m hoping for a landslide, but it doesn’t look like it’ll happen,” said Bob Hannon, 28, as he sipped a beer and waited for results at Obama’s election night party here in a downtown hotel ballroom. “I’ll be happy if they take California.”

Sip. Consider. “Even a fair split will be good for him.” Another sip, another thought. “I hope this is his year. If not, he’ll be the VP.” Then, “regardless, he’s made his mark. I couldn’t be happier.”

Made his mark indeed. Obama didn’t take California. “Landslide” is too strong a term for what happened Tuesday night, when the Illinois senator took at least 12 states to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s eight.

But as campaign manager David Plouffe characterized the race against Clinton in his second -- happier -- briefing for reporters, “This is a day they clearly thought they could put a punctuation mark on this, and they’re not going to do it.”

CNN called Utah for Obama and the crowd at the Hyatt party cheered. They analyzed Kansas and the crowd went wild. One network called Missouri for Clinton and then changed its mind -- perplexing in the least.

But by the time Obama took the stage shortly after the polls closed in California, it was clear that he was headed for the sweetest night of his campaign.

“We know that we have seen something happen over the last several weeks, over the past several months,” he said. “We know that what began as a whisper has now swelled to a chorus that cannot be ignored.”

It is a chorus, he continued, “that will not be deterred; that will ring out across this land as a hymn that will heal this nation, repair this world, make this time different than all the rest. Yes. We. Can.”

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maria.laganga@latimes.com