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It's official: Obama now the first African American presidential nominee

DENVER - The result was a foregone conclusion. But it was history nonetheless.

Delegates to the Democratic National Convention on Wednesday officially nominated Illinois Senator Barack Obama as their presidential nominee, making him the first African American to carry a major party's banner in a U.S. general election.

Obama was chosen by acclamation after his rival for the Democratic nomination, former first lady Hillary Clinton, took to the convention floor and moved to suspend the traditional state-by-state rollcall vote.

"With eyes firmly fixed on the future, in the spirit of unity, with the goal of victory, with faith in our party and our country, let's declare together in one voice right here right now, that Barack Obama is our candidate and he will be our president," Clinton said, triggering a deafening roar.

"I move Senator Barack Obama of Illinois be selected by the convention by acclamation as the nominee of the Democratic Party."

Clinton's move came after her campaign struck a deal with Obama's to cut off the rollcall after two thirds of the state's had voted. The compromise was designed to show respect for Clinton's supporters by allowing them to vote, while also projecting a united Democratic front.

While many of Clinton's delegates were in tears, Obama's nomination was a moment of jubilation for African American delegates at the Pepsi Center convention site.

"This day is like magic. It has been such a struggle," said Cordell Cleare, a black delegate from Harlem who joined Obama's campaign in early 2007.

Obama will accept the nomination Thursday night with a speech before an expected 80,000 people at Invesco Field, home to the Denver Broncos football team.

For many black delegates, the timing of Obama's speech has special significance - it falls on the 45th anniversary of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s 'I Have a Dream' speech on the National Mall in Washington.

"Forty five years it has taken for an African American to be able to come this far. Forty five years. It's insane," said Marcia Knox, a black delegate from Dayton, Ohio. "It's just liberating. Forty five years ago there was a man who believed one day we would all be walking down the path together, and now Obama is making that happen. "

The decision by Clinton to call for Obama's acclamation had deeply upset many of her own supporters.

Earlier Wednesday, Clinton released her delegates despite protests from loyalists who felt a full rollcall vote was needed to show the depth of her support. About half of her 1,640 delegates had signalled their desire to vote for her despite her appeals for them to rally behind Obama.

"I am not telling you what to do," said Clinton, who received 18 million votes during the Democratic primaries. "You've come here from so many different places having made this journey and feeling in your heart what is right for you to do."

Obama's official nomination came ahead of a highly-anticipated keynote speech by former president Bill Clinton, who had a rocky relationship with the Illinois senator throughout the Democratic primaries.

The Democratic stage is now set for Obama's convention speech, a lavish outdoor spectacle that campaign aides hope will thrust the Illinois senator into the political stratosphere.

Obama will speak from a stage that's erected at the stadium's 50-yard line and framed by faux-Roman columns. The expectations for Obama are extraordinarily high.

It will be the largest political rally held in the United States since John F. Kennedy accepted the Democratic nomination before 80,000 people at the Los Angeles Coliseum in 1960. But it's not the largest crowd Obama has spoken before - he drew 200,000 people to a July speech in Berlin.

The timing of Obama's address on the 45th anniversary of King's most famous speech was pure coincidence - the date for the Democratic nominee's speech had been chosen long before the outcome of the Democratic race was known.

Obama repeatedly invoked the civil rights leader during the Democratic primaries, and has fashioned his own rhetorical style after King.

Obama, 47, was two years old when King made his legendary call for racial unity: "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character."

"I have been impressed at every critical moment where the stakes are very high, that Barack Obama has risen to the occasion," Rhode Island Senator Jack Reed told Canwest News Service. "That's a testament to his to his intellect and his temperament . . . Certainly the test of the presidency will be more challenging."

While Democrats have embraced - even encouraged - comparisons between Obama and legendary orators King and Kennedy, the stadium rally carries risks for the candidate as well.

Republican John McCain's campaign, which derisively calls Obama 'The One,' believes the even with reinforce perceptions the Democratic nominee is a celebrity candidate with something of a messiah complex.

There'll certainly be no shortage of star power at Invesco Field. Former vice president and Nobel Peace Prize winner Al Gore will speak before Obama.

Jennifer Hudson, the Oscar-winning actress and former American Idol contestant, will sing the Star Bangled Banner, while fireworks will light up the Denver sky after Obama's speech. It has also been reported Bon Jovi will also perform.

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Obama's candidacy puts America on a historic course

When Barack Obama accepts his party's nomination for president Thursday night, 45 years to the day after the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech, the course of race relations in America will change forever.

Or will it?

For a nation where the torrents of race have tainted history and threaten the future, Mr. Obama's historic nomination makes him the great hope of his party and a barometer of just how much the racial divide has narrowed.

Mr. Obama's nomination could deal a death blow to racial politics and the intolerance it often creates. Or racism could resurge with obvious and subtle attempts to stop a black man from winning the White House.

So for the next two months — and the next four years, if Mr. Obama wins — the nation is in uncharted territory.

"No one knows how this is going to play," said state Sen. Rodney Ellis, D-Houston. "The Democratic Party showed us that we have come far enough to nominate an African-American for president. But now we're in the Super Bowl. The stakes are much higher than they were in the primary."

Will the country accept a black president? If Mr. Obama wins, what happens to black politics? And will Americans assume racism has been vanquished?

If the contentious Democratic primary and national polls are any indication, perceptions about race still hang over the American political process.

Mr. Ellis said he expected subtle attempts by anti-Obama groups to exploit that.

State Sen. Royce West, D-Dallas, agreed, saying the country is at a crossroads.

"There are people out there who are hurting and need the change that Obama can bring," he said. "They will have a choice on whether to vote for who they know in their heart is the best candidate, or bow to their fears about electing an African-American."

Past black candidates have shown strength among white voters in polls, only to see that support melt away once they got to the voting booth. Former Virginia Gov. L. Douglas Wilder, the nation's first elected black governor, said Mr. Obama could have the same problem.

"Is it a factor still, yes? But it's lessening," said Mr. Wilder, who was up by 15 points in late polls in 1989 but won the governorship by just 6,700 votes.

He said Mr. Obama's support was deep enough to overcome the same fate.

The symbolism of Mr. Obama's nomination is not lost on Democrats, especially those who have broken barriers of their own.

Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson, D-Dallas, was the first black woman to represent Dallas County in Congress.

"I never dreamed that in my lifetime I would see an African-American nominated for president," she said.

The primary season was an initial test of whether the country had moved beyond racial conflicts.

It was a test that was often failed.

Former President Clinton, a hero to black voters, suddenly became a villain for his post-South Carolina primary comments that compared Mr. Obama to Jesse Jackson. Mr. Clinton said the race card was played on him.

Mr. Obama was said by some to be a post-racial candidate because he came of age after the civil-rights movement. But then he had to give a major speech on race after the explosive comments of his former pastor, Jeremiah Wright, became must-see TV.

Some leaders, wary of what's happened to past minority candidates trying to make history, expect race could be a hurdle in the general election. Others say Mr. Obama's nomination is a good time to note progress.

"In America we always strive to be better, but sometimes it's good to step back and celebrate what we've accomplished," said Ron Kirk, who became Dallas' first black mayor in 1995 and a nominee for Senate in 2002. "You can't help but look around and see the diversity in the hall of government."

Mr. Obama's success raises questions about the future of black politics and the role race plays in society.

His nomination could open up opportunities for more minority candidates to successfully seek the highest offices in the land. But some also fear that a contentious general election campaign would create a backlash that could make Mr. Obama's victory a lonely one.

"Whether it's Obama or another elected official, there should be succession plans in place to assure the gains that have been made are not lonely victories," Mr. West said.

But state Rep. Marc Veasey, D-Fort Worth, said he hoped Mr. Obama's success would trickle down to black candidates who have been relegated to serving in black districts.

"It will make it more likely that voters will elect a black land commissioner or a black governor," he said. "So many black elected officials get pigeon-holed."

What of racism and inequality? If Mr. Obama goes on to win the White House, some will claim they have been eliminated, which could be a point of tension with black leaders and others.

"The issues of poverty, discrimination and access to health care have not gone away," said Rep. Gregory Meeks, D-N.Y. "Obama's nomination is significant, but the struggle continues."

Rep. James Clyburn, D-S.C., said that even as problems persist, Mr. Obama could be the manifestation of Dr. King's dream.

"If Obama is elected president, it would mean the dreams and aspirations and the hard work over the last 45 years would have been realized," said Mr. Clyburn, a pioneer himself as the third-most powerful Democrat in the House. "After wandering in the wilderness, we will have reached the mountaintop, perhaps the promised land."