Obama to Claim Victory

03 June 2008 |permalink | email article

In a moment of history, the tumultuous and often bitter five-month marathon between the first black and woman Democratic candidates for president ends after today’s two primaries in South Dakota and Montana.

Barack Obama is poised to wrap up the Democratic nomination and declare victory at a huge rally in St. Paul, Minn., ending the Clinton era in American politics.

Hillary Clinton, at an election-night rally in New York City with her top supporters, will deliver what has been described as a farewell speech summing up the case for her candidacy.

Obama is less than 29 delegates away from winning the nomination and the push is on to get enough uncommitted superdelegates from both the House and the Senate before the polls close to put him over the top. But that outcome is far from certain with Clinton perhaps the more interesting story. 

If necessary, the national Democratic leaders – Howard Dean, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid – are ready to issue a joint statement Wednesday asking all superdelegates to announce their preference by Friday.

An ambivalent Clinton will not formally concede tonight. She will suspend her campaign, still courting superdelegates into the night and hoping for a political miracle until Obama’s win sinks in. Her resilience and defiance in refusing to concede defeat has been palpable for weeks.

But her acerbic strategist Harold Ickes, despite his public rhetoric, told her fundraisers in a conference call Monday that she wants to “significantly” help Obama. 

Clinton and Obama reportedly talked Sunday night and agreed that their staffs should begin post-primary activities.

The most significant post primary development is the word that 28 Democratic governors will convene June 16 in Chicago with the Obama campaign to begin mapping a state by state strategy for the fall campaign.

The governors include sometimes mentioned vice-presidential possibilities Ed Rendell of Pennsylvania, Ted Strickland of Ohio – both Clinton supporters –and Kathleen Sebelius of Kansas who backed Obama.

Quotes of the Day

“I want to say also that this may be the last day I’m ever involved in a campaign of this kind.” – An angry Bill Clinton, on the trail in Milbank, South Dakota.

“And so the fact that they purchased the machine meant that somebody had to make the machine. And when somebody makes a machine, it means there are jobs at the machine-making place. – President Bush, at Silverado Cable Co. in Mesa, Arizona. (Ed. Note: Sounds like Herbert Hoover in 1930.)

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