Obama clinches US Democratic nomination

[Zeus]

(UPDATE) Obama makes history, clinches Democratic nomination

Agence France-Presse
First Posted 09:37:00 06/04/2008


ST PAUL -- Democrat Barack Obama made history Tuesday, capturing the Democratic presidential nomination as the first black candidate to top a major-party ticket, after a giant-slaying win over Hillary Clinton.
Senator Obama, 46, triumphed after the longest, most expensive nominating epic ever, buckling Clinton's own historic quest to break what she called America's highest glass ceiling by being the first woman president.
"Tonight, I can stand before you and say that I will be the Democratic nominee for president of the United States," Obama said in remarks prepared for his victory speech in Minnesota, a battleground state in November's general election against Republican John McCain, 71.
"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 said, 16 months after launching his improbable quest on a frigid Illinois day.
Clinton, however, signalled she was not yet ready to hand her army of supporters over to her rival, congratulating him on an "extraordinary" race but refusing to formally conceding defeat.
"Now the question is, where do we go from here, and given how far we've come and where we need to go as a party, it's a question I don't take lightly," Clinton said.
"This has been a long campaign, and I will be making no decisions tonight," she said, in an eloquent speech framing her never-say-die campaign, but hinting she still believed she was the best potential president.
Obama's soaring calls of hope and change, in a country wearied by the Iraq war and stalked by fears of recession, ended a 16-year era of Clinton family dominance over the Democratic Party.
His momentous victory -- in a nation where racial tensions are still palpable -- set up an intriguing general election clash.
Voters will be asked to choose between Obama, freshman senator and charismatic mixed-race voice of a new political generation, and McCain, a wounded Vietnam war hero asking for one final call to service.
Television networks projected Obama would surpass the 2,118 delegates needed to claim the Democratic party banner, minutes before Clinton snapped up a consolation victory in South Dakota's primary.
Obama won the final primary in Montana, television networks projected, capping a party election season stretching five months, and defying logic at every turn.
Five months before the election, Obama had a slight 49-44 percent lead in a new USA Today/Gallup poll out Tuesday, with their battle already boiling Iraq, whether to talk to US enemies like Iran and the ailing US economy.
Obama had zeroed in all day on the winning post of 2,118 delegates, after top party officials or superdelegates declared their support in a flood, finally consigning Clinton to mathematical defeat.
In the frenzied end-game, Clinton meanwhile said for the first she may be ready to serve as Obama's vice president, in a phone call with lawmakers from her New York state, a staffer with the New York delegation told AFP.
Obama needs Clinton to help him mend party rifts, and to rally her base of white working class women and Hispanic voters, but some analysts question whether he wants to deal with the Clintons' political "baggage."
Obama turned his full fire on potential general election rival John McCain, with a daring foray into the same Minnesota sports arena where Republicans will crown their nominee in September.
McCain got his retaliation in first, with a blistering general election attack, branding Obama the "wrong change" for America, in a speech also separating himself from unpopular Republican President George W. Bush.
"I don't seek the presidency on the presumption that I'm blessed with such personal greatness that history has anointed me to save my country in its hour of need," McCain said.
McCain spoke in the hurricane-ravaged city of New Orleans, scene of the Bush administration's worst domestic debacle, and previewed a five-month attack on Obama running up to the general election on November 4.
"The American people didn't get to know me yesterday, as they are just getting to know Senator Obama," he said.
Obama rocketed to prominence at the 2004 Democratic presidential convention with an electrifying call for unity, proclaiming "there is not a Black America and a White America... there’s the United States of America."
Son of a white American mother and a black Kenyan father, Obama was raised in Hawaii, and lived for several years in Indonesia in the late 1960s, which he remembered in a memoir as the "bounty of a young man's life."
Married in 1992 to Michelle, Obama has two young daughters, Malia and Sasha.
Buried in Tuesday's euphoria was the fact that Obama crept, rather than strode towards the finish line, as a defiant Clinton snapped up a string of late primaries in rust-belt states that Democrats need in November.
Her dominance of the white working class vote again raised the question of whether America was ready to elect a black president.

source: www.inquirer.net
June 04, 2008

[tidus1203]

He is too populist for my taste. If he wins, READ MY SIG and DO IT! More trouble for the greater economy ahead...

[1D4LV]

He is too populist for my taste. If he wins, READ MY SIG and DO IT! More trouble for the greater economy ahead...

i tend to agree with you bro. its not with Obama per se, but with the Democrats.

in fact, my boss, who is an american, said this to me. Democrats tend to overtax US citizens and their core economic foundations, which is the SMEs. That is why, most americans prefer a republican to win. Yun nga lang, puro gyera ang iniisip.

anyway, di pa rin naman natin alam kung si mccain nga o si obama ang ma-eelect by november.

tambay-tambay na lang.

[Jun aka Pekto]

i tend to agree with you bro. its not with Obama per se, but with the Democrats.

in fact, my boss, who is an american, said this to me. Democrats tend to overtax US citizens and their core economic foundations, which is the SMEs. That is why, most americans prefer a republican to win. Yun nga lang, puro gyera ang iniisip.

anyway, di pa rin naman natin alam kung si mccain nga o si obama ang ma-eelect by november.

tambay-tambay na lang.

Democrats are also stricter on Pinoys wanting to immigrate to the US.

During Clinton's time in office, I had a hard time bringing my wife here. All of her relatives who applied for immigration were denied during the same time frame. Yet during Bush Jr.'s two terms in office, almost all of them were approved. It's kind of hard to believe that was coincidence.

[Monseratto]

Hillary would have won if it was done through a popularity vote. Unfortunately it wasn't to be. I guess its McCain for president because many conservative Americans cannot accept a black man in the White House. Madami pa rin mga racist doon.

[CVT]

Tightly-contested democratic race and Hillary was hinting that she is considering running as as his Veep, while consulting with her advisers.....

6110:pepsi:

[Jun aka Pekto]

Hillary would have won if it was done through a popularity vote. Unfortunately it wasn't to be. I guess its McCain for president because many conservative Americans cannot accept a black man in the White House. Madami pa rin mga racist doon.

Actually, many racists hate McCain because of his moderate views. Don't assume Republicans are all leaning to the far right. Even the NRA, much as I dislike that group, have a fair number of minorities as members.

Me, I dislike Democrats who lean too far to the left and Republicans who lean too far the right.

As for the minority vote, the Democrats were the ones making the most noise about immigration reform during the past two years. They were the ones screaming to make it an issue and when it did become an issue, they then tried to declare they're the champions of the illegals. Hypocrites.

Add: Being conservative does not equate to being racist. Conservative is just that, conservative. The Philippines is a hell of a lot more conservative than here. Would you approve of 2 guys marrying or smooching in public? Me? Heck no (but two women going at it?......no comment ). Does that make me a conservative? Darn right it does. Am I racist? Nope. But,as one of Pinoy heritage, I'm a natural conservative. That's probably why Pinoys are so favored by Republicans to immigrate here.

[v6dreamer]

Hillary would have won if it was done through a popularity vote. Unfortunately it wasn't to be. I guess its McCain for president because many conservative Americans cannot accept a black man in the White House. Madami pa rin mga racist doon.

Racist in America is pretty much alive, white or non white alike. America is made up of immigrant,s of every culture from every corner of the world and when all this thing meet's together, there is alway's a negative. So racism is not an isolated matter.