WASHINGTON. At 3:00 am, Swedish time, the Illinois Senator Barack Obama reached the finishing line-–he won the support of the 2,116 delegates that were needed to reach a majority at the democratic party convention. In doing so he has become the first African-American US presidential candidate.
This became clear after the polling stations in Montana and South Dakota had closed. Thereby ending the primaries that had started 5 months earlier in Iowa. The 2008 Democratic party primary election campaign has been one of the longest and most closely fought in American political history.
“Tonight we can end a historical journey and at the same time start another one – a journey that will create a new and better America. Thanks to you I am standing here tonight and ascertain that I will win the democrats nominee for the new president of the United States,” Obama declared during a speech in Saint Paul, Minnesota, in front of 20,000 cheering spectators.
His choice of the twin cities Minneapolis/Saint Paul is no coincidence. It is in these cities that the Republicans are holding their party convention at the beginning of September and Obama apparently wants to kick-start his presidential campaign here in the lions nest.
During the primaries in prior years, the aspiring presidents have often chosen to give a speech in the states that had just finished elections. However, in Montana and South Dakota, only 31 delegates were at stake and these states, therefore, did not focus on them. The fact that Obama won in Montana and Clinton-–a bit surprisingly–in South Dakota, was not the most important. The reason Obama can now claim himself to be the winner is the fact that he has now gotten enough of the so-called super delegates on his side.
Prior to Tuesday evening, there were speculations that Hillary Clinton would admit defeat and even join in on Barack Obamas side in the Democrats fight for the presidency. None of that happened.
At a speech in New York, she emphasized that she had won in the states that had the most significance for the election and she repetitively stated that she has the support of ”18 million Americans”-–implying she recieved more total votes than Obama, but that he won the most delegates due to a system where all votes are counted in proportion. Most of the political experts in America seem to agree that it takes a sort of “glee calculation” in order to get the Clinton camps math to work.
“It has been a long campaign and I will not make any decisions tonight,” Hillary Clinton said, while telling her supporters to go onto her website and share their views on the matter.
Even the Republican candidate, John McCain, was out and about on Tuesday. He held a speech in New Orleans where he attacked the Bush Administration for its slow response in rebuilding the city devastated by flooding. He also welcomed Obama in the race for the White House and praised Hillary Clinton for her perseverance and courage.
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