Africa: Obama Nominated Party Candidate
 |
 |
|||||||||
|
||||||||||
|
|
|||||||||
|
||||||||||
The Nation (Nairobi)
28 August 2008
Posted to the web 29 August 2008
Samuel Siringi And Kevin J Kelley
Denver
US senator Barack Obama Thursday made history by being the first black American to be nominated to run for the presidency.
Delegates at the Democratic National Convention broke into song and dance after former First Lady Hillary Clinton stepped to the floor to end the presidential nomination process of Sen Obama. She rose from her seat - just as her New York State prepared to take a roll call of its delegates - and asked that Mr Obama be nominated by acclamation.
"In the spirit of unity, with the goal of victory," said Mrs Clinton as she cut short the roll call taking process of all states, and sent the Pepsi Centre into a frenzy.
For about 10 minutes, delegates sang and danced, with chants of "Obama; Yes we can."
Up until then, Mr Obama had only been a "presumptive" nominee of the party, a prefix that ended with the endorsement.
Later, Mr Obama made a surprise appearance at the delegates' conference where he praised his wife, the Clintons (Bill and Hillary) and running mate Joe Biden. He now becomes a true history maker, the first black American to lead a big party into a presidential election.
Following the endorsement, Mr Obama was to deliver his acceptance speech last night at the open football ground, Invesco Field.
Some 75,000 people were expected at the rally, the first time people, other than convention delegates, attended an acceptance speech of a presidential nominee.
Mr Obama argues that by inviting the public, he is living within his practice of allowing ordinary people to own his campaign. He says his campaign must always belong to the people.
Mr Obama, 47, now has the daunting task of leading Democrats into White House in the November presidential election.
After the nomination, former President Clinton took to the floor on Wednesday night and declared Mr Obama "ready to lead", in an indirect attack on Republican presidential candidate McCain, who has been claiming that the Illinois senator was unripe for the White House job.
"Everything I learned in my eight years as president and in the work I have done since in America and across the globe, has convinced me that (Barack) Obama is the man for this job," he said, arousing deafening approval from delegates.
He added: "He has remarkable ability to inspire people, to raise our hopes and rally us to high purpose." Mr Clinton praised Mr Obama's policies on the economy, healthcare, taxes, and energy as far superior than those of the Republicans.
On Thursday night Mr Obama was to accept the nomination by promising major political changes. His senior strategist, Mr David Axelrod, said the presidential nominee intended to talk to the American people about the challenges "we face and what we need to do to solve them".
The Obama campaign's emotional impact on African-Americans was dramatically demonstrated on Wednesday at a voter-mobilisation rally sponsored by the US Congressional Black Caucus.
Mrs Michelle Obama, making a surprise appearance, ignited the audience of about 500 at the Democratic Convention side event by leading a chant heard earlier in the day: "Fired up! Ready to go!"
Mrs Obama asked her mainly black listeners to apply their enthusiasm to the cause of ending Republican Party rule in the US. "This is not going to be easy," she told them. "Nothing about electing Barack Obama as the next president of the United States is going to be easy."
Huge turnout
African-American voters can make a decisive difference in the outcome of the November 4 election, another speaker pointed out.
Eric Holder, chair of Senator Obama's vice-presidential search committee, noted that 270,000 blacks are not registered to vote in the swing state of Ohio, which John Kerry, the 2004 Democratic presidential nominee, had lost to George Bush by 119,000 votes.
A huge turnout of black voters could also result in a few pro-Republican southern states, such as North Carolina and Virginia, moving into the Democratic column in November.
Meanwhile, a forum on global poverty held here on Wednesday in conjunction with the Democratic Convention heard a plea for Africa-related issues to feature in the US presidential campaign.
Relevant Links
Ms Nancy Birdsall, the director of a Washington think tank, said she was frustrated that discussion on Africa's poverty was absent from the Obama-McCain race for the White House. Ms Birdsall urged her listeners, including secondary school students, to insist that the candidates address problems in Africa that often affect the United States.
|
Read comments. Write your own.
|
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Make allAfrica.com your home page
|
RSS Feed
Sign up for FREE daily 'top headlines' by email >> | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Top | Site Guide | Who We Are | Advertising | Search | My Account | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Questions or Comments? Contact us. Read our Privacy Statement. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
