Obama Clinches Democratic Presidential Nomination
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: We're going to check in with the best political team on television and get analysis from our all-star panel all morning long. But first, let's fire things up with Kyra who's over at the big wall this morning. Good morning, Kyra.</s>KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, good to see you. Well, the United States is waking up this morning in a completely different place than it was yesterday. Barack Obama making history, winning enough delegates to clinch the Democratic nomination. He'll become the first African-American to head a major party ticket and while his opponent Hillary Clinton hasn't conceded, Obama launched right into the fall campaign.</s>SEN. BARACK OBAMA (D-IL) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: 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 this country that we love.</s>PHILLIPS: Hillary Clinton says that she's continuing her campaign at least for now and she praised Obama, but stopped short of calling him the party's nominee. And she posed the question of the night. What does Hillary want?</s>SEN. HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON (D-NY) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I understand that a lot of people are asking, what does Hillary want? What does she want? Well, I want what I have always fought for in this whole campaign. I want to end the war in Iraq. I want to turn this economy around. I want health care for every American. I want every child to live up to his or her God-given potential and I want the nearly 18 million Americans who voted for me to be respected, to be heard and</s>PHILLIPS: CNN's Jim Acosta is in Keystone, South Dakota where Clinton won last night. Hi, Jim.</s>JIM ACOSTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Kyra. That's right. It was another split decision last night. Montana went for Obama. South Dakota where I'm at went for Hillary Clinton. It was a curtain closer for an epic primary fight that seemed to end for everybody by Hillary Clinton.</s>ACOSTA (voice-over): The long grueling battle for the Democratic nomination is over.</s>OBAMA: Tonight, I can stand here and say that I will be the Democratic nominee for the president of the United States of America.</s>ACOSTA: Barack Obama secured enough delegates to lay claim to the nomination, making history as the first African-American to head a major party ticket. In front of a packed arena in Minnesota, Obama reached out to his Democratic rival.</s>OBAMA: Senator Hillary Clinton has made history in this campaign. She has made history not just because she's a woman who has done what no woman has done before, but because she is a leader who inspired millions of Americans.</s>ACOSTA: Clinton, at a rally in New York, congratulated Obama, but did not concede.</s>CLINTON: This has been a long campaign and I will be making no decisions tonight.</s>ACOSTA: Instead, she touted her accomplishments.</s>CLINTON: We won together the swing states necessary to get to 270 electoral votes.</s>ACOSTA: But she did acknowledge tough decisions ahead.</s>CLINTON: In the coming days, I'll be consulting with supporters and party leaders to determine how to move forward.</s>ACOSTA: The end of the primaries also brought a taste of the battle ahead.</s>OBAMA: It's not change when John McCain decided to stand with George Bush 95 percent of the time as he did in the Senate last year.</s>SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R-AZ), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: You'll hear from my opponent's campaign in every speech and every interview, ever press release, that I'm running for President Bush's third term. Why does Senator Obama believe it's so important to repeat that idea over and over again? Because he knows it's very difficult to get Americans to believe something that they know is false.</s>ACOSTA: And the other head scratcher of the night came from South Dakota's Senator Jim Johnson. After announcing his support for Barack Obama back in January, he said because of Hillary Clinton's lopsided victory in his state, he was switching his super delegate support to her. Both of these candidates will speak to the pro-Israeli lobby AIPAC later today. Kyra, it will be another chance to read the tea leaves.</s>PHILLIPS: Jim Acosta, look forward to talking to you more this morning. John, what's our panel say about the historic evening?</s>ROBERTS: Well, let's find out. Joining us now Democratic strategist Julian Epstein is up early. He's a Hillary Clinton supporter, Liz Chadderdon is an Obama supporter. Leslie Sanchez, Republican strategist and CNN contributor and we got John Avlon with us this morning who is a self-proclaimed independent strategist. Good morning to all of you. Thanks for being up so bright and early. Liz, let's start with you. Talk about the historic nature of what happened last night, where this country finds itself this morning.</s>LIZ CHADDERDON, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Well, this country finds itself in a brand new place this morning, John. I mean it's so exciting. How proud are we at what happened? Not only have we just put the first African-American as the Democratic nominee, but we watched the closest contest in history and personally, I think it was decided pretty fairly. I know not everybody may agree with me about that, but we went through 54 contests -- 36 million people voted and here we are in June, five months later and we have a nominee. I'm really proud. I'm proud of America. I'm proud to be an American and I'm proud to be a Democrat this morning.</s>ROBERTS: Julian, I'm sure that you're disappointed that your candidate didn't make it all the way, but are you satisfied with what happened last night? Are you happy with where we are today?</s>JULIAN EPSTEIN, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: I'm very satisfied. I think that there is no question that Barack Obama has won this nomination. He was won this nomination because he ran a better and a superior campaign. Last night was magical. It was a magical night for him. It was a magical night for this country in terms of the historical consequence of it, an African-American being the first nominee of a major party. His speech was really magical too. It was not about him. It was nothing self indulgent. He said this is about you. This is about the voters. That's why he is nominee. That has been his message from day one and Democrats should be feeling pretty good when you compare Barack Obama's speech last night to John McCain's.</s>ROBERTS: What about</s>EPSTEIN: I think she actually did concede. I disagree with a lot of your pundits on television last night. I think she did make the concession last night. I think it was done in a little bit encrypted terms, but I think the concession was made and I think you'll hear more about that in...</s>ROBERTS: In cryptic terms or hieroglyphics?</s>LESLIE SANCHEZ, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: ... Hillary to like English dictionary kind of translation. I totally missed that. I really think all of us did; we didn't get the memo. Very much though, I think you cannot discount how historic it is, tremendously important thing I think for this country and speaks to probably our better angels and that's what America wants to say and a lot of people want to believe that. But what does kind of -- I think Hillary Clinton did put a pall over it, because in not conceding the race, she not only minimizes the bump he will probably receive, which is five or seven points you'd probably expect this week, but it's also going to delay his ability to get into the general and talk to swing voters, you know, conservative Democrats, Independent, Republicans.</s>ROBERTS: Let's listen to a little bit about what she said last night, because some pundits have pointed out that she was talking about the strength of her candidacy as opposed to his last night. Let's listen.</s>CLINTON: You asked yourself a simple question. Who will be the strongest candidate and the strongest</s>ROBERTS: John, some people are suggesting it was a final shot at Barack Obama last night.</s>JOHN AVLON, SELF-PROCLAIMED INDEPENDENT STRATEGIST: It was. This was a final victory lap from the Tina Turner, simply the best theme song, believe in yourself, kind of the Nixon Checkers, write my Web site, tell me how you feel, encourage me to go. This was not particularly gracious. She talked about uniting the party, but she didn't show any actions that lead us to that conclusion. So I think in the next couple days she's going to have to have the walk match the talk.</s>ROBERTS: A lot to talk about this morning, folks, get another cup of coffee and get ready because we're going this morning. Kyra.</s>PHILLIPS: We're going to talk of course about Barack Obama and will he choose Hillary Clinton as his running mate? What do voters think of that idea? We're going to take a look at the polls, but what if Hillary Clinton doesn't run with Barack Obama and runs against him as an independent? We're going to discuss her options ahead on AMERICAN MORNING as well.