Obama bids to rebuild the American Dream
Friday, 29 Aug 2008 00:05
Barack Obama: Will accept Democrat nomination on 45th anniversary of Martin Luther King's I Have a Dream speech
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Barack Obama stands on the brink of making yet more history as the finale of the Democratic Convention approaches.
He is hours away from formally accepting the party's nomination for the White House after being resolutely backed by Bill and Hillary Clinton.
Two-term former president Mr Clinton joined his wife in hailing the Illinois senator in a landmark speech last night.
Mrs Clinton had earlier broken convention by calling on a traditional roll-call to select Mr Obama to be scrapped, allowing the 47-year-old to be nominated by acclamation.
"With eyes firmly fixed on the future, in the spirit of unity, with the goal of victory, with faith in our party and our country, let's declare together in one voice right here, right now, that Barack Obama is our candidate and he will be our president," Mrs Clinton said.
Video: Hillary Clinton's call for unity
On Tuesday the New York senator, who had run against Mr Obama in an historic Democratic nominee battleground, urged her supporters to back her former rival against Republican candidate John McCain.
"Hillary told us in no uncertain terms that she'll do everything she can to elect Barack Obama," Mr Clinton told the convention in Denver, Colorado, last night.
"Actually that makes 18 million of us – because, like Hillary, I want all of you who supported her to vote for Barack Obama in November.
"Clearly, the job of the next president is to rebuild the American Dream and restore America's standing in the world.
"Everything I learned in my eight years as president and in the work I've done since, in America and across the globe, has convinced me that Barack Obama is the man for
this job."
Click here to read the full text of Bill Clinton's speech
While Mr Obama, who will address supporters in a 70,000-seater sports stadium tonight, is yet to formally accept his party's nomination, his running-mate Joe Biden did just that on Wednesday.
The veteran lawmaker told the convention: "Since I've never been called a man of few words, let me say this as simply as I can: Yes. Yes, I accept your nomination to run and serve alongside our next president of the United States of America, Barack Obama.
"These are extraordinary times. This is an extraordinary election. The American people are ready. I'm ready. Barack Obama is ready. This is his time. This is our time. This is America's time."
Click here to read the full text of Joe Biden's speech
Mr Obama, who will become the first black man to be given the nomination by the Democrats or Republicans, made a surprise appearance at the convention following Mr Biden's speech.
He said he was proud to have Mr Biden at his side "on our journey to take America back".
Mr Obama will stand up to deliver his acceptance speech at 20:00 local time (03:00 BST).
Matthew Champion