Historic First: Obama's the Nominee

They're free to vote as they please, Sen. says

(NEWSER) - Hillary Clinton formally released her delegates today to allow them to vote for Barack Obama as the Democratic nominee, CNN reports. The expected move cleared the way for this evening's nomination of Barack Obama. Before the official roll call began, the names of both Clinton and Obama were formally nominated. More»

Clinton camp's back-handed Obama-bashing, second-guessing mark jittery DNC

(NEWSER) - A former John McCain strategist described the odd mood in Denver perfectly, Maureen Dowd writes in the New York Times: “Submerged hate.” That would explain the uneasy proceedings, which have been marked more by Clintonian drama than anything else. At a recent new conference, Dowd observes, “Hillary looked as if she were straining at the bit to announce her 2012 exploratory committee.” More»

(NEWSER) - Hillary Clinton delivered her long-awaited address tonight to the Democratic convention and drove home the point quickly and repeatedly: The party must unite and elect Barack Obama. Clinton, after a lengthy standing ovation, said she hasn't worked for the past 35 years on health care and women's rights only to have it all "squandered" by another Republican administration, CNN reports. More»

Says delegates should count after all; most would be hers

(NEWSER) - The Dems punished Michigan and Florida for slating their primaries early, but yesterday Hillary Clinton said she wants their delegates to count after all, Reuters reports. As the only Dem on last week's Michigan ballot and the front-runner in Tuesday's Florida's primary, she would reap nearly all 350 delegates at stake. More»

(NEWSER) - Barack Obama is wielding his clout to try to win the Summer Olympics for Chicago in 2016, which, if you follow the bouncing political ball, could be great news for Hillary Clinton or another lucky Democrat, writes Nate Silver of FiveThirtyEight.com. Here's the logic: The Olympics create a groundswell of patriotism that usually pays off for the president in office. In fact, three of four incumbents won re-election in a landslide when the US hosted the summer Games, notes Silver. More»