Obama clinches Democratic nomination

04/06/08

By jeff zeleny

Senator Barack Obama has claimed the Democratic presidential nomination, prevailing through an epic battle with Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton in a primary campaign that inspired millions of voters from every corner of the United States to demand change in Washington.

A last-minute rush of Democratic superdelegates, as well as split results from the final primaries in Montana and South Dakota on Tuesday, pushed Obama over the threshold of 2,118 delegates needed to be nominated at the party’s convention in Denver in August.

The victory for Obama, the son of a black Kenyan father and white Kansan mother, broke racial barriers and represented a remarkable rise for a man who just four years ago served in the state Senate of Illinois.

“Tonight, we mark the end of one historic journey with the beginning of another – a journey that will bring a new and better day to America,” Obama told supporters at a rally in St. Paul, Minnesota.

“Because of you, tonight I can stand here and say that I will be the Democratic nominee for president of the United States of America.”

Addressing supporters in New York, Clinton paid tribute to Obama but did not say that she was leaving the race. In a speech more defiant than conciliatory, she again argued that she was the stronger Democratic candidate and said that she had won the popular vote, a notion disputed by the Obama campaign.

“I want the 18 million Americans who voted for me to be respected,” Clinton told her supporters. But she also paid homage to Obama’s accomplishments, saying, “It has been an honor to contest the primaries with him, just as it has been an honor to call him my friend.”

Obama’s victory moved the presidential campaign to a new phase as he tangled with Senator John McCain of Arizona in televised addresses Tuesday over Obama’s assertion that McCain would continue the policies of President George W. Bush.

McCain vigorously rebuffed that criticism in a speech in Kenner, Louisiana, in which he distanced himself from the departing president while contrasting his own breadth of experience with that of Obama.

“The American people didn’t get to know me yesterday, as they are just getting to know Senator Obama,” McCain told his supporters.

Obama’s victory closed a 16-month primary campaign that broke records on several fronts: the number of voters who participated, the amount of money raised and spent, and the sheer length of the grueling fight. Infused by tensions over race and gender, the campaign provided unexpected twists to the bitter end, with Obama ultimately prevailing over Clinton, who just a year ago appeared set to become the first woman to be nominated by a major U.S. political party.

The last two state contests Tuesday reflected continuing divisions in the party, as Clinton won the South Dakota primary, while Obama won in Montana.

The race drew to its final hours with a burst of announcements – delegate by delegate – of Democrats stepping forward to declare their support for Obama. The Democratic establishment, from former President Jimmy Carter to rank-and-file local officials among the party’s superdelegates, rallied behind Obama as the day advanced.

On Tuesday morning, Obama needed 41 delegates to effectively claim the Democratic nomination. Just as polls began to close in Montana and South Dakota, Obama secured the delegates he needed to end the duel with Clinton, which wound through every state and territory in an unprecedented 57 contests over five months.

Every time a new endorsement was announced at Obama’s headquarters in Chicago, campaign workers broke into a round of applause, followed by the popping of Champagne bottles later in the evening. The aides in Obama’s team – a political startup – are responsible for defeating one of the most tried and tested operations in Democratic politics.

While the race for the Democratic nomination may have ended, a new chapter has begun in the complicated tensions that have defined the relationship between Obama and Clinton.

In his speech on Tuesday evening, Obama complimented his rival. “Our party and our country are better off because of her,” he said, “and I am a better candidate for having had the honor to compete with Hillary Rodham Clinton.”

“You can rest assured that when we finally win the battle for universal health care in this country, she will be central to that victory,” Obama said. “When we transform our energy policy and lift our children out of poverty, it will be because she worked to help make it happen.”

Before she arrived at a rally in New York City on Tuesday, Clinton and a few close advisers huddled at her home in Chappaqua to discuss the timing of her departure from the race. In an afternoon conference call with her fellow New York lawmakers, she asked that they be patient while she decided her next move.