Democratic Sen. Barack Obama, the 46-year-old freshman senator from Illinois, ended a 16-month political marathon Tuesday, clinching enough delegates to become the first African American presidential nominee of a major political party.
It was a momentous occasion in American politics not acknowledged by the country's first viable female presidential candidate, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton - once considered the Democratic Party's inevitable nominee - who told supporters in New York she would make no immediate decision about her future, while privately expressing interest in becoming Obama's vice presidential candidate.
Speaking to some 20,000 ecstatic supporters, Obama graciously acknowledged his former political rival as a formidable and historic candidate after he surpassed the final hurdle, amassing 2,154 delegates, 36 more than the 2,118 needed for the Democratic nomination.
That effectively ended a grueling, divisive Democratic primary race which began exactly five months ago with his surprise caucus win in Iowa and ended Tuesday with a split decision in the final two states, a 10-point loss in South Dakota to Clinton and a 15-point win in Montana.
"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," said Obama, in a victory celebration designed to underscore his eagerness to take on the GOP presumed nominee John McCain in the general election in November.
"Because of you, tonight I can stand before you and say that I will be the Democratic nominee for president of the United States," he said to an explosion of cheers in the very same hall in St. Paul, Minn., where McCain, the 71-year-old Arizona senator, will be nominated by his party in September.
"America, this is our moment. This is our time - our time to turn the page on the policies of the past, our time to bring new energy and new ideas to the challenges we face," Obama said, in a speech echoing positive Reaganesque themes of America's greatness and possibilities. "Our time to offer a new direction for the country we love."
By contrast, Clinton - surrounded by her husband, former President Bill Clinton, daughter Chelsea, donors and supporters at Baruch College in New York - defiantly celebrated her final win in South Dakota and offered nothing resembling a concession. Indeed, backed by the theme song, "Simply the Best" by Tina Turner, Clinton continued to argue that she is the most electable candidate. While she congratulated Obama for being a formidable candidate, she never mentioned that he now has the delegates for the nomination she has been chasing for nearly two years.
That effectively left her options open, and many of her delegates and supporters have vowed to bring her case for the nomination before the party's credentials committee at the Democratic National Convention in Denver in late August.
Obama's camp immediately began the work of reaching out to Clinton - and he reportedly called Clinton in an effort to bring her backers into the fold. But it was the stunning impact of a historical political landmark that dominated the evening: that Obama, the son of a Kenyan-born black man and a white woman from Kansas, succeeded in shattering a centuries-old color line in clinching the nomination of a major American political party.
"This is perhaps the second greatest moment in African American history - symbolically right up there with the abolition of slavery," said Professor James Taylor, who teaches politics and African American history at the University of San Francisco. "It will have tremendous effect across the world ... overnight, the world will exhale and say, 'My God, America has done something different, unprecedented.' "
Many African Americans, both supporters of Clinton and Obama, said it was a stunning landmark they never expected to see in their lifetimes.
"This is a moment that (America) is ready for ... a major step in completing the unfinished business of a great country," said Rep. Barbara Lee of Oakland, an African American and the first member of the U.S. Congress to endorse the Illinois senator. "I grew up in Texas, and I couldn't even go to public school or drink out of public water fountains. ... It's a major, major statement about who we are as a country ... and how far we have come."
But the Rev. Amos Brown, a longtime civil rights activist and the pastor of the Third Baptist Church in San Francisco - and a supporter of Clinton - said older African Americans view Obama's landmark moment with joy, and considerable caution; their high hopes have often been shattered by seeing promising black leaders cut down, stopped and destroyed by racism.
"I applaud what he's done, but we must go beyond symbolism to substance," said Brown, who said he is willing to "work my heart out" for Obama.
But there will be many obstacles, he said. "People forget so easily, they don't know the way of the river," he said. "They haven't been down this path. I've been able to, in these 67 years, get a broad perspective ... about the heat of the day and the oppression" still existing regarding the issues of race.
Other Democrats said that they were concerned that Clinton's speech did not suggest a unified front.
"I'm disappointed tonight that Sen. Clinton did not reach out more to Sen. Obama," said Donna Brazile, an undecided superdelegate and African American Democratic leader on CNN. She said Obama has personally assured her he wants to sit down with Clinton and to mend fences.
And Democratic unity will be key: Even before Obama was declared the presumed party nominee, McCain effectively launched the general election contest with a full-fledged assault on the Illinois senator.
Speaking from Louisiana, McCain was backed by a sign announcing his new slogan - "A Leader We Can Believe In," a direct spin on Obama's signature motto, "Change We Can Believe In." He attacked the Democrat as an inexperienced, ineffective and insincere candidate, saying he is "an impressive man, who makes a great first impression ... but he hasn't been willing to make the tough calls, to challenge his party, to risk criticism from his supporters to bring real change to Washington. I have."
Obama, speaking to his supporters, countered that "John McCain has spent a lot of time talking about trips to Iraq in the last few weeks. But maybe if he spent some time taking trips to the cities and towns that have been hardest hit by this economy - cities in Michigan, and Ohio, and right here in Minnesota - he'd understand the kind of change that people are looking for."
The presumed Democratic nominee promised an upbeat campaign, saying that his campaign will not use "religion as a wedge and patriotism as a bludgeon."
"Because we may call ourselves Democrats and Republicans, but we are Americans first. We are always Americans first."
Steve Westly, the former state controller who became an early campaign fundraiser and co-chair for Obama in California, recalled that when he endorsed Obama in early 2007, most Democrats were firmly behind Clinton and "it was about the loneliest I've ever felt in politics."
And that's another reason why Tuesday's results capped an extraordinary ending to a quixotic effort by Obama.
"We've been talking a lot about getting this new generation on board, and he has made it happen," Westly said. "He has brought more people, more in contributions, and he has touched a chord of involvement we haven't seen ... since Bobby Kennedy."
Delegate totals
Barack Obama 2,154
Hillary Clinton 1,919.5
2,118 needed to clinch Democratic nomination
Pledged delegates
Obama: 1,765
Clinton: 1,637.5
Super- delegates
Obama: 389
Clinton: 282
Primary results
Montana
86% of precincts reporting
Barack Obama: 56 percent
Hillary Clinton: 41 percent
South Dakota
99% of precincts reporting
Clinton: 55 percent
Obama: 45 percent
