History Making Night!

BREAKING NEWS
By Alex Johnson
Reporter
MSNBC

Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois claimed the Democratic presidential nomination Tuesday night, NBC News projected based on its tally of convention delegates. By doing so, he shattered a barrier more than two centuries old to become the first black candidate ever nominated by a major political party for the nation’s highest office.
“Tonight, I can stand before you and say that I will be the Democratic nominee for president of the United States,” Obama planned to say in a victory celebration in St. Paul, Minn., at the site of the convention that will nominate his Republican opponent in the fall, Sen. John McCain of Arizona.
Obama’s victory would come on the final day of the Democratic campaign schedule, as voters in South Dakota and Montana voted in the final primaries. But it was the decisions of the last unpledged party officials, known as superdelegates, who would put Obama over the top.

Throughout the day, as Obama edged closer to the number of 2,118 delegates needed to win the nomination, more and more superdelegates relentlessly ticked over into his column, leading him to claim victory early in the evening.
Other notable black candidates have run for president, but it was Obama who broke through to be embraced by one of the two major parties, 45 years after Martin Luther King Jr. declared his dream for a colorblind America.
In a speech Tuesday night in New Orleans, McCain welcomed Obama to the general election campaign as a “formidable” opponent. But he proclaimed that he was “ready for the challenge and determined to run this race in a way that does credit to our campaign and to the proud, decent and patriotic people I ask to lead.”
Obama kills off challenge from ClintonNBC News projected Obama as the presumptive Democratic nominee at 9 p.m. ET, as polls closed in South Dakota. It said the primary was too early to call, but it said Obama would win at least six delegates. Combined with late superdelegate declarations, it said Obama had gone over the 2,118 delegates he needed.
Obama, 46, of Illinois, bested Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York in a historic campaign that sparked record turnouts in primary after primary, yet exposed deep racial and gender divisions within the party.
Throughout the day, as superdelegates fell into Obama’s column, speculation increased that McCain could be facing an Obama-Clinton unity ticket.

The Rest of the story: CLICK HERE