Obama clinches Democratic nomination

Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.) secured the Democratic nomination Tuesday night, becoming the first black candidate to win a major party nomination and setting up a condensed general election battle with presumptive Republican nominee Sen. John McCain (Ariz.).

Obama’s march past the delegate threshold appeared inevitable throughout the day as the remaining undecided superdelegates came over to his side in force, and the results from the last two contests – South Dakota and Montana – seemed academic while still adding delegates to Obama’s total.

{mosads}“Tonight, I can stand before you and say that I will be the Democratic nominee for President of the United States,” Obama said in his prepared remarks Tuesday night.

In victory, Obama sought to first unify what appears to be a fractured party, lavishing praise on vanquished rival Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.).

“Sen. Hillary Clinton has made history in this campaign not just because she’s a woman who has done what no woman has done before, but because she’s a leader who inspires millions of Americans with her strength, her courage, and her commitment to the causes that brought us here tonight,” Obama said in his remarks at the Xcel Center in St. Paul, Minn.

“Our party and our country are better off because of her, and I am a better candidate for having had the honor to compete with Hillary Rodham Clinton,” he added.

Rumors and reports swirled throughout the day in anticipation of Obama’s step across the nomination finish line that Clinton was “open” to joining Obama on the ticket.

While Obama was clearly making steps to try to assuage the anger of the more than 17 million people who voted for Clinton throughout the nomination battle, he pivoted quickly to the general election and his next opponent who also signified Tuesday night that the next battle has already begun.

McCain spoke earlier in the night from New Orleans, where he outlined his plan of attack against Obama, attempting to seize the message of change from Obama and make his case for representing change coupled with experience.

Clinton attempted a similar tack against Obama, but in the end, it was the Illinois senator who was viewed as the change candidate.

Obama, speaking from the site of this summer’s Republican convention, acknowledged McCain’s military service and the Arizona senator’s criticisms of his youth and short time in the Senate.

“They will come here to nominate John McCain, a man who has served this country heroically,” Obama said. “I honor that service, and I respect his many accomplishments, even if he chooses to deny mine. My differences with him are not personal; they are with the policies he has proposed in this campaign.”

The theme of Obama’s remarks on McCain was to portray McCain as offering a third term of President Bush’s administration.

Obama accused McCain of wanting to continue tax cuts for the wealthy, ignoring Americans without health insurance and continuing the Iraq War without end.

On that last note, Obama waded into territory that has drawn the constant ire of McCain’s campaign and the Republican National Committee (RNC) when he said “what's not an option is leaving our troops in that country for the next hundred years.”

“We must be as careful getting out of Iraq as we were careless getting in – but start leaving we must,” Obama said.