DES MOINES, Iowa – Barack Obama shied away from triumphantly proclaiming total victory over Hillary Rodham Clinton last night, but he certainly annihilated the central reason she gives for staying in the race.

The Clinton team claims that Sen. Obama is nothing more than a black candidate with a sidecar of liberal academics.

This is why, the Clintons argue, white Democrats in working-class and rural states simply can’t pull the lever for this black guy with a foreign-sounding name.

And, the Clinton’s implied reasoning goes, since she appeals so much to these racist white Democrats that are the “backbone” of the party, she would make a much better nominee against Republican Sen. John McCain.

So what about the claim that because of opposition from working-class white Democrats, Obama can’t win in November?

It is hard to imagine that the hostility of these white voters would be quite so stark had Sen. Clinton not spent the past four months campaigning on precisely this schism.

Exit polling last night showed just how persuasive Clinton has been in convincing these voters that they shouldn’t back Obama.

Obama’s inspired choice of venue last night – Des Moines – reminded everyone that once upon a time, rural and working-class white Democrats were pretty eager to get behind him as an agent of complete change in Washington.

Here in Iowa, where blacks make up less than three percent of the population, Democrats in January overwhelmingly chose an untested black man over the well-known Queen of the Party.

And so last night, Obama came back here once again to, yet again, put an end to the Clinton Dynasty.

What a long journey it’s been.

churt@nypost.com