The Daily Gamecock

Issue date: 8/28/08 Section: News

Delegates celebrate the Democratic Party's nomination of Barack Obama, D-Ill. (Stephan Savoia/The Associated Press)

DENVER - Barack Obama stepped triumphantly into history Wednesday night, the first black American to win a major party presidential nomination, as thousands of Democrats transformed their convention hall into a joyful, shouting celebration.

Former rival Hillary Rodham Clinton asked delegates to the party convention to make their verdict unanimous "in the spirit of unity, with the goal of victory." And they did, with a roar.

Competing chants of "Obama" and "Yes we can" surged up from the convention floor as the outcome of a carefully scripted roll call of the states was announced.

Obama was across town in his hotel suite as the party punched his ticket into the general election campaign against Republican Sen. John McCain. He was expected to briefly visit the Pepsi Center later in the evening to thank the delegates.

The polls showed a close race ahead with the 72-year-old McCain, a former Vietnam prisoner of war, and Obama was hoping Democrats would leave their convention united despite the hard feelings remaining from a bruising primary campaign that stretched over 18 months.

Former President Bill Clinton did his part, delivering a strong pitch for the man who outmaneuvered his wife for the nomination. "Everything I've learned in eight years as president and the work I've done since, in America and across the globe, has convinced me that Barack Obama is the man for this job," he said, to loud cheers.

Michelle Obama, watching from her seat in the balcony, stood and applauded as the former president praised her man.

The convention ends Thursday with Obama's acceptance speech, an event expected to draw a crowd of 75,000 at a nearby football stadium where an elaborate backdrop was under construction.

Obama's nomination was the main event of an evening that also included the installation of his choice of Delaware Sen. Joseph Biden as vice presidential running mate.

In prepared remarks, Biden said Obama was right about Iraq, a war he opposed from the start, and McCain was wrong.

"These times require more than a good soldier. They require a wise leader," Biden said. "A leader who can deliver change. The change that everybody knows we need."

Obama isn't the first black man to seek the White House, but he is the first with a chance to win it.

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