News Alert: Obama Claims the Democratic Presidential Nomination

By Chris Cillizza washingtonpost.com

Sen. Barack Obama claimed the Democratic nomination for president in a speech in Minnesota tonight -- an historic achievement that for the first time will place an African American at the top of a major political party's ticket.

After months of see-saw battling with his arch Democratic rival, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, ending tonight with Obama and Clinton splitting primaries in Montana and South Dakota, Obama will be immediately thrust into a pitched general election battle with Sen. John McCain (Ariz.), the presumptive Republican nominee.

In speeches by both men tonight, they sought to define the parameters of the contest to come. Obama cast McCain as an insufficient change agent after eight years of George W. Bush's presidency. McCain insisted that Obama represents the wrong kind of change.
In a speech to a raucus crowd at the Xcel Center in St. Paul, Obama declared: "Tonight I can stand here and say that I will be the Democratic nominee for President of the United States."
Obama went on to praise his Democratic opponents as "the most talented, qualified field of individuals ever to run for this office," but he saved special plaudits for Clinton.
He referred to the former first lady as "a leader who inspires millions of Americans with her strength, her courage and her commitment to the causes that brought us here tonight." Obama wasn't done. "Our party and our country are better off because of her, and I am a better candidate for having the honor to compete with Hillary Rodham Clinton," he said.
Obama also made a direct appeal to Clinton supporters, especially women, who may be unhappy about the tenor and the results of the Democratic primary. "At the end of the day we aren't the reason you came out and waited in lines that stretched block after block to make your voice heard," said Obama. "You didn't do that because of me or Senator Clinton or anyone else."
Obama scored his final primary victory in Montana and was quickly endorsed by the state's governor as well as the two Democratic senators. Clinton, meanwhile, claimed a come-from-behind victory in South Dakota, after trailing in the state for weeks.

Clinton, who spoke roughly 30 minutes before Obama at Baruch College in New York City, congratulated the Illinois senator for the "extraordinary race" he ran, although she did not acknowledge he had effectively won the nomination and stressed that "I will be making no decisions tonight" about her future plans.
Clinton repeatedly touted her popular vote strength, noting that she had received nearly 18 million total votes. "Even when the pundits and the naysayers proclaimed week after week that this race was over, you kept on voting," she said to roars from the assembled crowd. She added that her campaign has won the swing states "necessary to get to 270 electoral votes."
Mathematically, there is little debate that Obama is his party's presumptive nominee. As polls closed in Montana at 10 p.m. Eastern time, the Obama campaign rolled out more than two dozen superdelegates -- putting him well above the 2,118 delegates required to become the formal nominee of his party.
Obama had 2,146 total delegates -- 28 more than he needed to cinch the nomination -- according to Associated Press' calculations. Clinton had 1,907 delegates.

McCain, 71, who secured the Republican nomination months ago, sought to begin the general election in earnest in a speech tonight in which he praised Clinton and attacked Obama as the wrong sort of change.
"Senator Clinton has earned great respect for his tenacity and courage," McCain said. "The media often overlooked how compassionately she spoke to the concerns and dreams of millions of Americans, and she deserves a lot more appreciation than she sometimes received." His remarks appeared to be a direct appeal to the many Clinton supporters who have indicated in exit polls that they wouldn't back Obama in the general election.
When it came to Obama, McCain was less complimentary. While he praised the Illinois senator as a "formidable" foe for the fall, McCain described Obama as supporting the wrong kind of change for the country. McCain also rejected Obama's attempts to link the Arizona Republican to President Bush's policies. "He tries to drum it into your minds by constantly repeating it rather than debate honestly the very different directions he and I would take the country," said McCain of Obama's tactic.

For his part, Obama, 46, sought to portray McCain as a political clone of Bush, supporting his stands on the war in Iraq and tax cuts. "While John McCain can legitimately tout moments of independence from his party in the past, such independence has not been the hallmark of his presidential campaign," said Obama.
Obama entered the day roughly 40 delegates away from the magic number of 2,118 necessary to officially secure the nomination. A steady stream of superdelegates announced their support for him throughout the day, however, steadily moving him toward the coveted political goal line. House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn (S.C.), the highest-ranking African American in Congress, declared in endorsing Obama: "Today the process ends."
Even as Clinton pledged to speak with her supporters about what the next step in her campaign should be, there were signs that she was leaving open the possibility of serving as Obama's vice president.
During a conference call with New York members of Congress, Clinton was asked by Rep. Nydia Velasquez to consider accepting the vice presidency in order to ensure that Hispanics turned out in strong numbers for the Democratic ticket.
Clinton responded that she was willing to do "whatever it takes" to elect a Democrat in the fall -- a statement widely interpreted as expressing some level of interest in being named Obama's runningmate against McCain in the fall campaign.
Clinton aides warned, however, that the New York senator had not spent any serious time weighing her political future -- choosing instead to focus on performing as well as possible in the final two primaries of nomination process.
Even if Clinton is interested in the vice presidency, it was not immediately clear that the post would be offered to her. "We don't have a short list or a long list," said senior Obama strategist David Axelrod. "We're coming here tonight to finish the process. It's way too early to talk about that."

Washington Post staff writer Shailagh Murray contributed to this report.