Barack Obama claims victory but Clinton holds off formal concession

The long, bruising battle for the Democratic presidential nomination is over. As predicted, enough superdelegates - including former President Jimmy Carter - endorsed Barack Obama yesterday to take him past the magic figure of 2,118 committed delegates once the votes came in from the final primaries, Montana (which he won) and South Dakota (which went to Hillary Clinton).

Obama told a 20,000-strong victory rally in St Paul, Minnesota: "Tonight, we mark the end of one historic journey with the beginning of another - a journey that will bring a new and better day to America. Because of you, tonight, I can stand before you and say that I will be the Democratic nominee for president of the United States."

Hillary Clinton, however, while congratulating the Obama team on the delegate count, refused to formally concede. She says she wants to take time to assess her position - and she wants the votes of 18m Americans who have voted for her in the various primaries and caucuses to count.

Most observers believe she plans to exert maximum pressure on Obama to give her a role in the general election campaign against the Republican John McCain, and in his administration should he win on November 4. Earlier in the day, when pressed by a Democratic member of Congress to push for the vice-presidential nomination, she responded: "I am open to it".

But while Obama was generous towards his rival in his victory speech - "Our party and our country are better off because of her, and I am a better candidate for having had the honour to compete with Hillary Rodham Clinton" - it is not at all certain he wants her on the ticket.

As Alexander Cockburn writes in his column for The First Post today:
"Hillary's supporters suggest that as Obama's running mate she would be a huge boost to the ticket. Others say all she might deliver him is Arkansas and maybe help in Florida, but who wants Bill Clinton anywhere near the ticket?"

FIRST POSTED JUNE 4, 2008