WASHINGTON (CNN) — Sen. Barack Obama has clinched the Democratic nomination for president, according to CNN estimates, making him the first African-American in U.S. history to lead a major-party ticket.
Obama picked up a slew of superdelegate endorsements on Tuesday. Those endorsements, combined with the delegates he’s projected to receive from South Dakota’s primary, will put him past the 2,118 threshold, according to CNN estimates.
Obama will claim victory during a speech in St. Paul, Minnesota, according to prepared remarks released by his campaign.
“Tonight, I can stand before you and say that I will be the Democratic nominee for President of the United States,” he’s expected to say.
His remaining rival, Sen. Hillary Clinton, does not plan to concede the race Tuesday night, campaign chairman Terry McAuliffe told CNN — but one of her leading supporters said “a moment of truth” was at hand.
“I think a decision has to be made about whether keeping this nomination wide open is in the best interest of winning in November,” said Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-California.
“I do not believe that it is, and I’m a very strong supporter of Hillary being placed on ticket as a vice presidential candidate.”
Two New York lawmakers told CNN on Tuesday that Clinton expressed willingness during a conference call to serve as Obama’s running mate in November.
One of the lawmakers said Clinton’s husband, former President Bill Clinton, has been pushing the idea privately for several weeks. And earlier, Rep. Charles Rangel, D-New York, told CNN, “I have reason to believe she is open to the V.P. slot.”
But in a statement issued Tuesday afternoon, her campaign said there was nothing new in her remarks.
“Today on a conference call with New York legislators, Sen. Clinton was asked whether she was open to the idea of running as vice president and repeated what she has said before: She would do whatever she could to ensure that Democrats take the White House back and defeat John McCain,” the former first lady’s campaign said in a written statement Tuesday afternoon.
Even though she discussed being Obama’s running mate, McAuliffe earlier in the day said Clinton was “absolutely not” prepared to concede the race after the polls close tonight in Montana and South Dakota, the final two contests on the primary calendar.
McAuliffe rejected as “100 percent” incorrect an Associated Press report that Clinton is preparing to acknowledge Obama has the delegates to win the nomination Tuesday night as the five-month Democratic primary process comes to a close.
Former President Jimmy Carter and Rep. James Clyburn, the No. 3 Democrat in the House and the highest ranking African-American in Congress, were two of the most prominent superdelegate endorsements that Obama picked up.
“I came to that decision because I do believe that he has elevated this campaign,” Clyburn said. “He has energized our constituents. He is redrawing an electoral map for Democrats.”
Obama is holding a rally at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, the same arena which will house the 2008 Republican National Convention in September. Clinton will spend the evening at a campaign event in New York City. iReport.com: See what cartoonists think of the interminable race
Obama is looking more and more toward a likely general election matchup with John McCain, the presumptive GOP presidential nominee. Obama has started looking at Clinton as less of a rival and more as an important ally who can help him win in November.
“We’re getting very close to the number that will, that will give us the nomination and if we’ve hit that number on Tuesday night, then we will. We will announce that and I think even if we don’t, this is the end of the primary season, and I think it’s very important for us to focus on the clear contrast that’s going to exist between Democrats and Republicans in this election,” Obama said this weekend while campaigning in South Dakota.
“Sen. Clinton is an outstanding public servant, she has worked tirelessly on this campaign, she has been a great senator for the state of New York and she is going to be a great asset when we go into November to make sure that we defeat the Republicans,” Obama said on the campaign trail Sunday in South Dakota, adding Monday in Michigan that “she and I will be working together.”
EDITOR’S NOTE: Yes, more beer is what the people of Ethiopia need now. What a bunch of idiots.
ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) – A newly established Ethiopian-U.S. investment group said on Tuesday it was building a $37 million brewery at Maichew, in the northern Tigray region.
Michael Gebre Mariam, chairman of the Ethio-American Investment Group, told reporters production would start by the end of 2010, and that the facility would have the capacity to produce 30 million litres of “Raya Beer” every year.
He said the site had been chosen because of a suitable water source nearby, and that the company planned to grow barley on 15 hectares of land it bought adjacent to the brewery.
The Ethio-American Investment Group, which has its headquarters in Duluth, Georgia, was set up this year by 25 Americans of Ethiopian origin, he said.
TO:
Jonathan Scharfen
Director, United States Citizenship & Immigration Services
Department of Homeland Security
245 Murray Lane, SW
Washington, DC 20528
Dear Mr Scharfen,
It has come to my attention that thousands of members of the Tigrean People Liberation Front (TPLF), the party that is currently ruling Ethiopia, are applying for and being granted political asylum in the United States. Many of these ‘political refugees’ are close family members of the TPLF (also call themselves Woyannes, meaning ‘bandits’) regime officials. Officials of the Ethiopian government manufacture evidences for them claiming that they are members of opposition parties. Some of these asylum seekers have been directly involved in the torture and murder of Ethiopian civilians.
I believe that it is a gross injustice to grant political asylum in the United States to these criminals whose organization is terrorizing the people of Ethiopia, and who are the main reason that hundreds of thousands of Ethiopians fleeing their country, including myself.
I am willing to provide any assistance you need to track down, identify and take legal action against these members and supporters of the TPLF regime who are violating the laws of the United States by filing false claims of persecution.
I am one of the victims of the TPLF regime. I have been convicted by the regime’s kangaroo court of treason and sentenced to life in prison after the prosecutor demanded that I get a death penalty. My only crime is publishing a journal named Ethiopian Review that has been banned from Ethiopia since 1995.
If you need further assistance, I can be reached at [email protected].
Regards,
Elias Kifle
Publisher, EthiopianReview.com
ADDIS ABABA – Authorities closed 16 cooking oil factories in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa on Tuesday after eight people were killed and scores sickened by food cooked with contaminated oil.
In a statement, the Health Ministry said 94 people were in hospital with suspected poisoning, and urged the public to only buy cooking oil marked with government safety stamps.
“Study indicated that a highly toxic oily fruit, unfit for human consumption, had been mixed with other ingredients by the factories processing edible oil,” the statement said.
Investigations into work practices at the 16 shuttered businesses were continuing, government officials said.
Reuters
Reporting by Tsegaye Tadesse; Editing by Daniel Wallis
Thomas B. Edsall, The Huffington Post
Hillary Clinton has summoned top donors and backers to attend her New York speech tomorrow night in an unusual move that is being widely interpreted to mean she plans to soon suspend her campaign and endorse Barack Obama — not tomorrow night but within a day or two.
Obama and Clinton spoke Sunday night and agreed that their staffs should begin negotiations over post-primary activities, according to reliable sources. In addition to seeking Obama’s help in raising money to pay off some $20 million-plus in debts, Clinton is known to want Obama to assist black officials who endorsed her and who are now taking constituent heat, including, in some cases, primary challenges from pro-Obama politicians.
“This has never happened before,” one donor said, referring to the personalized request by email to attend the event in New York Tuesday night.
Obama is expected to claim enough delegates to put him over the top that night at a separate event in St. Paul.
In an afternoon conference call today with about two dozen top fundraisers, Clinton strategist Harold Ickes spoke in very conciliatory terms about Obama, in contrast to his tougher rhetoric in public and on television, according to sources. He told the participants that Clinton wants to “significantly” help Obama, but he did not go so far as saying that she will announce withdrawal — that is the prerogative of the candidate.
Ickes told the group to “take a deep breath” and let Clinton proceed in her own fashion.
Earlier in the day it was reported that Clinton staffers were being urged by the campaign’s finance department “to turn in their outstanding expense receipts by the end of the week,” another sign that the run at the White House was nearing an end. In addition, Politico wrote that members of Clinton’s advance staff had received calls and emails Sunday night, summoning them to New York City and telling them their roles on the campaign are ending.
>компютриON (Thomson Financial) – Sheba Exploration (UK) Plc. said four percussion holes, ranging in depth between 40 metres and 52 metres, were drilled into gold geochemical targets at Shehagne EEL in northern Ethiopia from May 16-22, 2008.
All holes penetrated disseminated sulphide mineralisation, the group said. It added the drill holes penetrated pale grey felsic volcanic rocks carrying disseminated pyrite, which gives rise to an orange-red (limonitic) alteration zone at surface.
The alteration zone is usually associated with gold-bearing quartz veinlets, the company said. The average of all 27 quartz veinlets sampled in the area was 5.5 grams per tonne of gold.
Gold assays from the drill chippings will be carried out in due course. Further drilling may continue after the close of the rainy season in October, the company added.
[email protected] npr/slm
