Obama's historic quest for top job

Source: Agencies  |   2008-6-5  |     NEWSPAPER EDITION

BARACK Obama plunged ahead yesterday on a history-making quest to become the first black president of the United States, focusing on healing rifts with defeated rival Hillary Rodham Clinton and in the Democratic Party as a five-month general election battle against Republican John McCain gets under way.

Obama made history by becoming the first black nominee of a major US political party, a victory on a promise of hope and change for Americans weary of economic turmoil and years of war.

His battle against McCain, a veteran senator who effectively clinched the Republican nomination months ago, looks to be a clash of generations as well as a debate on Iraq.

Obama, 46, opposes the war; McCain, 71, is a former Vietnam prisoner of war and staunch supporter of the current US military mission.

The nomination was a milestone for a nation where, just decades ago, racial discrimination was so severe blacks in some states could not eat at the same lunch counters as whites, and many had to fight just for the right to vote.

In securing the delegates needed to win, Obama completed one of the most remarkable US political campaigns in memory.

A first-term senator, unknown nationally four years ago, he toppled one of America's most powerful political families.

Clinton's future

Clinton, seeking to become the first female president, had long been seen as the inevitable nominee.

She has yet to acknowledge Obama's victory in the bruising Democratic race and her aides - also dodging that conclusion - said on the morning television talk shows yesterday she would take a few days to decide what comes next for her.

Clinton was angling to become Obama's running mate and her aides ramped up the speculation on that matter.

"I think a lot of her supporters would like to see her on the ticket," Clinton campaign chairman Terry McAuliffe said.

But Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs cautioned "there is no deal in the works."

On the final night of the primary season, Clinton won South Dakota while Obama took Montana - and a slew of party superdelegates who declared their support to help him clinch the party nod.

Condoleezza Rice, the highest-ranking black member of the Bush administration, congratulated Obama, saying his victory is "an extraordinary expression of the fact that 'We the people' is beginning to mean all of us."

White House spokeswoman Dana Perino also extended President George W. Bush's congratulations to Obama, though Bush did not call him.