Barack Obama is on the verge of claiming victory in the Democratic primary.
Barack Obama effectively clinched the Democratic presidential nomination Tuesday, based on an Associated Press tally of convention delegates, becoming the first black candidate ever to lead his party into a fall campaign for the White House.
Campaigning on an insistent call for change, Obama outlasted former first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton in a historic race that sparked record turnout in primary after primary, yet exposed deep racial divisions within the party.
The AP tally was based on public commitments from delegates as well as more than a dozen private commitments. It also included a minimum number of delegates Obama was guaranteed even if he lost the final two primaries in South Dakota and Montana later in the day.
The 46-year-old first-term senator will face Sen. John McCain of Arizona in the fall campaign to become the 44th president.
Clinton was ready to concede that her rival had amassed the delegates needed to triumph, according to officials in her campaign. These officials said the New York senator did not intend to suspend or end her candidacy in a speech Tuesday night in New York. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they had not been authorized to divulge her plans.
Obama’s triumph was fashioned on prodigious fundraising, meticulous organizing and his theme of change aimed at an electorate opposed to the Iraq war and worried about the economy—all harnessed to his own innate gifts as a campaigner.
Source: Obama effectively clinches nomination
Barack Obama will claim the Democratic presidential nomination on Tuesday after winning the support of a wave of uncommitted delegates and pushing rival Hillary Clinton to the verge of defeat.
A day-long parade of delegates flocked to Obama, putting him just shy of the 2,118 delegates he needs to become the first black to lead a major U.S. political party in a campaign for the White House.
The Illinois senator is certain to cross the threshold later on Tuesday night after polls close in the final two nominating contests in Montana and South Dakota, which have 31 delegates at stake.
He will be crowned the nominee at the August nominating convention in Denver and will face Republican John McCain in November’s election to choose a successor to President George W. Bush.
“Tonight, we mark the end of one historic journey with the beginning of another,” Obama will say at a victory celebration in St. Paul, Minnesota, at the site of the Republican convention in September, according to his prepared remarks.
“Tonight, I can stand before you and say that I will be the Democratic nominee for President of the United States.”
Source: Obama Poised to Claim Historic Victory
Rolling Stone magazine has put Barack Obama on the cover, for the first time, endorsing a candidate before the official end of the primary season.
Source: Jan Wenner Taps Barack Obama
Barack Obama Poised to Claim Historic Victory
