‘America, this is our moment.
This is our time. Our time to turn the page on the policies of the past . . . to bring new energy and new ideas to the challenges we face . . .to offer a new direction for the country we love.’
After 16 months and 54 contests, Barack Obama has clinched the number of delegates needed to win the nomination. He gave a stirring, uplifting speech to a raucous crowd of some 18,000 in St. Paul, Minnesota—taking the fight to the city where the Republicans will hold their convention in September—but Hillary Clinton has not yet conceded or endorsed him. Speaking to a fervent crowd of supporters in the basement of Baruch College in New York City, Clinton campaign chairman Terry McAuliffe introduced her as “the next president of the United States,” and Hillary claimed, “Thanks so much to South Dakota. You had the last word,” when Montana voters were still pulling the levers.
New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd warns that Hillary is up to something, and Dowd is not alone in anticipating trouble ahead.
But even as Obama was trying to savor, Hillary was refusing to sever. Ignoring the attempts of Obama and his surrogates to graciously say how “extraordinary” she was as they showed her the exit, she and a self-pitying Bill continued to pull focus. . . . She gave a brief nod to Obama without conceding that he was the nominee before rushing through a variation on her stump speech. . . . Clintonologists know that Hillary is up to something, but they aren’t sure what. . . .
It ain’t over.
Click here for Obama’s remarks.
And here for a transcript of Hillary’s speech.