June 4
Saturday
Clinton did declare it an “honor” to have Obama as an opponent and “to call him my friend,” but she made no acknowledgment of the historic nature of her opponent’s achievement. The Democratic Party, whose ranks once included die-hard advocates of slavery and arch segregationists, had just taken the decisive step toward making Obama the first African American to be a major-party nominee for president.
“President Bush congratulates Senator Obama for clinching the Democratic Party’s 2008 nomination for president,” Perino said. “He knows from personal experience that the presidential nominating process is a grueling one. Senator Obama came a long way in becoming his party’s nominee. And his historic achievement reflects the fact that our country has come a long way, too.”
Tonight, he told me, we have come full-circle. Many people, especially the younger generation who supported Obama, will never fully realize the historical import of what happened tonight. But he wanted his grandchildren to know this story that he had never told us, and it was the second time in my 33 years that I have heard my grandpa cry.
And now, a flashback to January 3.
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