Obama, Clinton and What Has Been Achieved

http://www.thenation.com/blogs/thebeat/326501/obama_clinton_and_what_has_been_achieved

Obama, Clinton and What Has Been Achieved
posted by John Nichols on 06/04/2008 @ 12:37am


The longest, most demographically-difficult and highest-turnout campaign ever for the presidential nomination of an American political party was settled Tuesday night when Barack Obama -- the son of an African immigrant and a daughter of rural Kansas -- secured sufficient delegate support to assure that he will be selected as the Democratic nominee for president of the United States.

It was a historic moment for Obama, for the Democratic party and for the American experiment.

For the first time since the founding of the republic, a major party has nominated an African-American man for the presidency.

There is drama in that – as there will be drama in Obama's acceptance of that nomination on the 45th anniversary to the day of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr's "I Have a Dream" speech.

But there is drama, as well, in the fact that this African-American man has prevailed in a close contest with -- not against, but with -- a woman. Hillary Clinton.

snip//

History will record that the Democratic party, which in the middle passage of the 20th century committed more freely and more fully than the Republican party to freedom's cause and the struggle to shatter those glass ceilings, began to harvest the fruits of it past commitments in the first months of 2008. It has not always been easy. It has not always been pretty. But something remarkable has begun to happen. And, on Tuesday night, as he pronounced himself to be the presumptive nominee of the Democratic party, Barack Obama was able to say, "America, this is our moment. This is our time. Our time to turn the page on the policies of the past. Our time to bring new energy and new ideas to the challenges we face. Our time to offer a new direction for the country we love."