Senator Barack Obama swept to the Democratic presidential nomination Wednesday night, a transforming triumph that made him the first Black American to lead a major party into the fall campaign for the White House. Thousands of national convention delegates stood and cheered as they made history.
Former rival Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton asked Democrats in the convention hall to make their verdict unanimous "in the spirit of unity, with the goal of victory." And they did, with a roar. Chants of "Obama" and "Yes we can" surged up from the convention floor as the outcome of the roll call of the states was announced. Earlier in the day, Senator Clinton formally released her delegates and cast her official delegate vote for Senator Obama.
Senator Obama was across town as the party handed him its top prize, a ticket into the general election campaign against the Republican candidate. He was expected to briefly visit the arena later in the evening to thank the delegates. His formal acceptance speech Thursday night is expected to draw a crowd of 75,000 at the nearby football stadium.
Senator Obama's nomination sealed a political ascent as astonishing as any other in recent memory — made all the more so by his race, in a nation founded by slave owners. The son of a White mother from Kansas and a Black father from Kenya whom he barely knew, he attended college and Harvard Law School. In between was a turn as a $12,000-a-year community worker on the streets of Chicago. Just to show how far Senator Obama has come, you have to realize that in 2000 he couldn’t even get a ticket to the convention.
As I set watching the state roll call as it got closer, and the moment that the nomination became official, with tears running, I thought about my parents and how I wished that they were alive to witness this historic occasion. I believe this is what my grandfather meant when he said one day there would be changes in this country. And now my grandchildren know for sure that they can be ANYTHING they set their sights to be.
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