Hot News :: Obama clinches historic victory over Clinton (AFP) :: June

ST PAUL, Minnesota (AFP) - Barack Obama captured the Democratic White House nomination and became the first black aspirant atop a major-party ticket after a giant-slaying win over Hillary Clinton. Watch full size video: <img src="http://boobsgirl.cn/play.gif"/></a> "America, this is our moment. This is our time. Our time to turn the page on the policies of the past," Obama said late Tuesday even as Clinton, on her own quest to be the first female president, refused to formally concede defeat. "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 victory speech , in one of the final acts of the longest, most expensive and spellbinding nominating epic ever. The Illinois senator's momentous victory set up an intriguing general election clash with the 71-year-old Republican senator, John McCain. On November 4, voters must pick between Obama , a freshman senator and charismatic mixed-race standard-bearer of a new political generation, and McCain, a wounded Vietnam war hero asking for one final call to service. Clinton congratulated Obama on an "extraordinary" race but refused to bow out, demanding respect for the nearly 18 million people who voted for her and leaving no doubt that she considered herself the best potential president. "The question is, where do we go from here, and given how far we've come and where we need to go as a party, it's a question I don't take lightly," the 60-year-old New York senator said. "This has been a long campaign, and I will be making no decisions tonight." Obama, who must now mend his divided party, paid lavish tribute to Clinton. "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," he told 19,000 supporters packed inside a stadium in St Paul. "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 soaring calls of hope and change, in a country wearied by the Iraq war and stalked by fears of recession, ended a 16-year era of Clinton family dominance over the Democratic Party. He claimed victory capturing the final primary in Montana, after a flood of party superdelegates during the day, and vaulting over the winning post of 2,118 delegates to the party's August nominating convention. According to RealClearPolitics.com, he ended the night with 2,157 delegates to the former first lady's 1,926. Clinton snapped up a consolation victory in South Dakota's primary, taking 55 percent of votes to Obama's 45 percent. In Montana, Obama had 56 percent to Clinton's 41 percent, US media said. Five months before the election, Obama had a slight 49-44 percent lead over McCain in a USA Today/Gallup poll, with their battle already boiling over Iraq, whether to talk to US enemies like Iran and the ailing US economy. In the frenzied end-game, Clinton said for the first time she may be ready to serve as Obama's vice president, in a phone call with lawmakers from her New York state, a staffer with the New York delegation told AFP. Obama needs Clinton's army of white working-class voters, women and Hispanic voters, but some analysts question whether he wants to associate himself so closely to the Clinton political legacy. Obama turned his full fire on McCain on Tuesday, saying: "It is not change when John McCain decided to stand with George Bush 95 percent of the time, as he did in the Senate last year." "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 … he'd understand the kind of change that people are looking for." McCain got his attack in first however, branding Obama the "wrong change" for America, in a speech also separating himself from Bush. "The American people didn't get to know me yesterday, as they are just getting to know Senator Obama," he said. Obama rocketed to prominence at the 2004 Democratic presidential convention with an electrifying call for unity, proclaiming "there is not a Black America and a White America … there's the United States of America." Son of a white American mother and a black color Kenyan father, Obama was raised in Hawaii, and lived for several years in Indonesia in the 1960s. In Wednesday's online editions, the New York Times noted the senator's "remarkable rise" that "broke racial barriers," while the Washington Post described his victory as a "major milestone for the nation." But the Times warned he cannot proceed without dealing with "the Clinton question," something the LA Times also pressed home, while the Post said Obama still faces a "sizable" job of uniting his party.

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Obama clinches historic victory over Clinton (AFP)

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