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A Sigh of Relief

Team Obama reaches a milestone and relaxes, if only for a moment.

 
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An Improbable Journey

Barack Obama's life and rise to prominence in American politics

 
 

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For Barack Obama's team, Tuesday was a day unlike any other primary day. Gone were the normal nerves about the final results, the shared leaks of exit polls and the memories of dashed expectations in previous contests.

Since late on Monday evening the Illinois senator's top aides had known they would secure the nomination with a bloc of superdelegates to be rolled out over the course of the coming day.   But it wasn't until the elected officials and party insiders started to make their endorsements public early Tuesday afternoon that Team Obama could finally, at long last, begin to relax.

On the plane to St. Paul, Minn., the inner circle could finally savor the historic nature of the victory at hand. The man they worked for was about to become the first African-American candidate ever to top a major-party ticket. Staffers began to hug and joke. Amid the festivities, reporters asked senior strategist David Axelrod if he and his colleagues recognized the milestone they had reached.

"I think that it's going to take a little while for it to sink in," Axelrod said. "We've been so engaged in this process day to day that it's almost surreal that we're at this moment. But I'm proud of him and proud of the country. We started off with the premise that the things that unite us as Americans are greater than the things that divide us and that we could overcome whatever barriers existed. The fact that we have I think says a great deal about the progress that we've made as a country, and I think also a great deal about Barack Obama. So it's an extraordinary night. We're going to celebrate tonight, and then we're going to wake up tomorrow and start all over again, because we're not in this simply to break a barrier. We're in this to try and change the country and the direction of this country."

Other aides expressed a simpler sentiment, after 16 months of travel and hand-to-hand combat with the Clintons. "Relieved," said one senior aide when asked how he felt now that the nomination was clinched. "It will be great to just focus on one thing: the general election."

That's what Obama did in his speech in St. Paul, returning to the original theme of his campaign: a call to turn the page on the policies of the past and forge a new politics.

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Member Comments

  • Posted By: bob15s15 @ 06/26/2008 1:21:49 AM

    To Likeitis: Obviously you are not an attorney. If you were, and bothered to read the controlling law, specifically, the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 (a/k/a the McCarren-Walter Act), as in effect in 1961, you would recognize that, having been born in 1961 in the US to an ???alien??? father and an 18 year-old mother having US citizenship, Obama cannot be a natural born citizen because his mother could not have lived in the US for 5 years after turning 14. The real question is: WHY IS THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY NOMINATING SOMEONE WHO IS NOT ELIGIBLE TO BE PRESIDENT UNDER THE US CONSTITUTION, WHY HAVE THE REPUBLICANS SAID NOTHING ABOUT THIS, AND WHY HAS THE MEDIA IGNORED THIS REALITY?

  • Posted By: willnotvoteobama @ 06/20/2008 12:55:15 PM

    TYLER - The price of oil swelled to another record high Monday morning - before dropping back. It almost hit $140 a barrel - but then fell 25 cents. It appears - a recent increase in oil output from Saudi Arabia -- is not driving down crude prices. Former Speaker of the House, Newt Gingrich, who started a bipartisan group called "American Solutions for Winning the Future" held little back at the Texas Republican Convention. He wants to use American solutions to change to the U.S. energy policy.

    Simply put - he's fed up with Congress: "The problem is not big oil or the foreigners," said Speaker Gingrich. "The problem is not the Saudis. The problem is getting Congress to do it's job." And that job, he says, is to start using the energy we have. "Congress outlaws every conceivable energy source," said Speaker Gingrich. Gingrich is making his case for domestic drilling by launching a campaign with Actor Chuck Norris, with the slogan: "Drill here, Drill now, Pay less." The campaign is urging Congress to do something now to bring down gas prices. Speaker Gingrich also has thoughts on speculators. "It's people who are betting the U.S. is too dumb to produce (its own oil)."


    He sides with East Texas Congressman Louie Gohmert -- when it comes to speculators and drilling. "If you began selling off two million barrels a day...we can pump out of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. It would immediately bring down the price of oil." Speaker Gingrich proposes selling off half of the reserve - now. "Do it suddenly..without telling anybody in advance and punish every speculator."The very speculators, he says, that are betting against America."

    GO TO WWW.AMERICANSOLUTIONS.COM AND SIGN THE PETITION !!!

  • Posted By: willnotvoteobama @ 06/18/2008 1:15:12 PM

    America has ALREADY voted for change! They were going show Bush in 2006! And we sure got CHANGE!

    Before Democrats controlled Congress:

    1) Consumer confidence stood at a 2 1/2 year high.

    2) Regular unleaded gasoline was $2.19 a gallon.

    3) Unemployment rate was 4.5%.

    Since voting in a Democratic Congress in 2006 we have seen:

    1) Consumer confidence plummet.

    2) The cost of regular gasoline soar to over $4.00 a gallon.

    3) Unemployment is up to 5% (a 10% increase).

    4) American households have seen $2.3 trillion in equity value evaporate (stock and mutual fund losses).

    5) Americans have seen their home equity drop by $1.2 trillion dollars; 1% of American homes are now in foreclosure.

    6) Oil was 63 dollars a barrel the day before the newest congress convened. It closed last Friday at 126 dollars a barrel. That is doubled for those with fuzzy math.

    7) Economic Growth for the 4th quarter of 2006 in GDP was 3.5 percent.

    8)1st Quarter 2008 0.6 percent.


    Remember it's Congress that makes laws, not the President. The President has to work with what is handed to the Administration.


    realism4u2

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