Obama clinches nomination; Clinton not conceding defeat
Surge of delegates creates a historic first for a black candidate
ST. PAUL - Making history and promising change for the future, Senator Barack Obama clinched the Democratic presidential nomination last night, setting the stage for an intense five-month campaign against Republican John McCain that will offer voters starkly different visions for the country.
After a flood of endorsements from party leaders and securing enough delegates in yesterday's final primaries in Montana and South Dakota, Obama finally surpassed the threshold to formally declare victory over Senator Hillary Clinton, becoming, nearly 16 months after launching his improbable campaign, the first-ever African-American presidential nominee for a major party. Clinton, however, did not concede defeat.
Obama and his supporters basked in their watershed win last night at a highly choreographed, emotional celebration in downtown St. Paul. It was both a fitting capstone for the race just concluded - a hard-fought, cross-country primary contest over five frenetic months - and a tidy preview of the battle to come, as Obama spoke at the very venue where McCain will accept the GOP nomination in September.
"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 gathered at
With that, a sea of 17,000 people - in addition to the 15,000 outside the arena - gave a deafening roar. Obama, looking from rafter to rafter, paused to absorb the moment.
Obama wasted little time in kicking off his new journey, aggressively attacking McCain's positions on the economy, on Iraq, and on foreign policy.
"I'll say this - there are many words to describe John McCain's attempt to pass off his embrace of George Bush's policies as bipartisan and new," Obama said, "but change is not one of them."
Following a day of uncertainty about how Clinton would respond to Obama's victory, Clinton congratulated him last night and said she was "committed to uniting our party." But she said little about her future.
"This has been a long campaign and I will be making no decisions tonight," she said, provoking wild cheers.
Clinton said she will consult with party leaders and supporters to decide her next step. "What does Hillary want? What does she want?" she acknowledged many people are asking. "I want what I always fought for in this whole campaign. I want to end the war in Iraq. I want to turn this economy around."
Clinton also expressed an openness among supporters yesterday to being Obama's running mate, an outcome many Democratic voters have said they favor. But while Obama has said Clinton would "be on anyone's short list," it is far from clear whether he and his campaign will want her on the ticket or whether she really wants the job.
Despite the bitterness that grew between the two campaigns, Obama's words for Clinton last night were deeply conciliatory. He called her a "leader who inspires millions of Americans with her strength, her courage, and her commitment to the causes that brought us here tonight."
"We've certainly had our differences over the last sixteen months," Obama said. But, he said, "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."
Obama's comments underscored the delicate balance he struck in recent weeks as it became increasingly probable that he would win the nomination. He had to begin laying the groundwork for November with trips to general election battlegrounds and increasingly sharp attacks on McCain while at the same time not alienating Clinton's millions of supporters by appearing overly presumptuous.
Though Obama and McCain have already been sparring on a near daily basis, Obama's clinching of the Democratic nomination means that their race now begins in earnest, a contest that will look quite different than the one Obama has fought to this point.
Obama and Clinton did not, for all their squabbles, differ significantly on policy. They both vowed to enact universal healthcare, though using different tactics. They both said they would begin bringing troops home from Iraq within their first days in office. They both championed plans to move toward energy independence, regulate the troubled mortgage industry, and pull back from free trade.
But a McCain-Obama race promises sharp distinctions: McCain wants to make permanent the tax cuts President Bush implemented early in his administration, while Obama wants to eliminate them to pay for his healthcare plan and other domestic programs. McCain is a strong supporter of the war in Iraq and says Obama's pledge to bring troops home amounts to "surrender." And the two candidates have fought fiercely in recent days over Obama's stated willingness to meet with leaders of rogue nations without precondition.
McCain, in a speech last night in Kenner, La., blasted Obama for constantly trying to link him with President Bush, who is unpopular among voters.
"You will hear from my opponent's campaign in every speech, in every interview, every press release that I'm running for President Bush's third term. You'll hear every policy of the president described as the Bush-McCain policy," McCain said. "Why does Senator Obama believe it's so important to repeat that idea over and over again? Because he knows it's very difficult to get Americans to believe something that they know is false."
The general election battle will also surely turn on character, biography, and record. Indeed, as Obama's campaign was gearing up for last night's rally in St. Paul, Governor Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota, a Republican often mentioned as a possible running mate with McCain, tried to dismiss Obama as a political newcomer with nothing in his background preparing him to lead the free world.
"The best sermons aren't preached, they're lived," Pawlenty said. McCain, he said, "has lived a life of dedication and commitment and valor and courage and service."
In the final two of 56 Democratic contests, Clinton won yesterday's South Dakota primary, while Obama won in Montana.
But those results received little attention in St. Paul, where Obama, his campaign, and his supporters sought to savor the moment.
They reflected on how far the 46-year-old first-term US senator had come since he launched his campaign in Springfield, Ill., in February 2007 and how remarkable it was to have vanquished the Clintons, the most powerful clan in Democratic politics. Supporters lined up on the streets of St. Paul for hours yesterday for a chance to witness history first hand.
"It could be pouring rain, we wouldn't care," said Jo Brown, a retired executive secretary from Minneapolis. "I'm 67 years old, and I do not remember the last time I was this excited about anything."
"It's time to inject change," said John McMahon, a 23-year-old political science student at St. Cloud State University. "He's definitely leading the masses."
Because McCain wrapped up his party's nomination in February, the Republican Party has enjoyed a head start in planning for the fall. One of the first tasks for Obama and the Democratic Party is to craft a fund-raising plan. Obama has to decide whether he will forgo public financing, which he seems likely to do, and the party needs to catch up in filling its coffers for the fall.
To that end, Howard Dean, chairman of the Democratic National Committee, is slated to be in Boston today for a meeting with Obama's leading fund-raisers in New England. There have also been informal discussions among top Clinton and Obama donors about working together in November, and some of Clinton's leading fund-raisers may even join a gathering of Obama's national finance committee in Chicago this month.
The next major decision each candidate must make is on a vice presidential candidate. Along with Pawlenty, former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, Governor Bobby Jindal of Louisiana, and Governor Charlie Crist of Florida have been mentioned as potential McCain running mates. For Obama, analysts say Senator Jim Webb of Virginia, Governor Bill Richardson of New Mexico, and Senator Joseph Biden of Delaware are all possibilities.
But last night, all of that was for another day, as Obama hoisted his party's flag.
"We owe our children a better future. We owe our country a better future," he said. "And for all those who dream of that future tonight, I say let us begin the work together. Let us unite in common effort to chart a new course for America."
Scott Helman can be reached at shelman@globe.com. 