“Thanks to you, we’ve reached a milestone,” Clinton told a screaming crowd in Brooklyn. “Don’t let anyone tell you that great things can’t happen in America. Barriers can come down.”
For Clinton, it was an emotional moment that culminates a remarkable, decades-long career in politics in which she sometimes struggled to escape the long shadow of her husband, former President Bill Clinton. With the klieg lights on her — and Bill Clinton off-stage — the evening at the center of a Brooklyn warehouse was her one-woman show that is perhaps a preview of America’s next four years.
The White House announced that President Obama had phoned Clinton on her victory. “Her historic campaign inspired millions and is an extension of her lifelong fight for middle-class families and children.”
With a bruising primary behind her and an arduous general election battle ahead, Clinton now stands in the eye of a hurricane. Her aides are bracing for a brutal campaign against presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump. But for the moment, those aides and advisers took a moment to relish in the history they had helped create.
Clinton, too, was taking a minute to enjoy the moment. “This campaign is about making sure there are no ceilings, no limits on any of us,” she said. “I am going to take a moment to fully absorb the history we’ve made here.” Then, never one to dilly-dally, she is scheduled to head to campaign in swing states Ohio and Pennsylvania at the start of next week. Her work to defeat Trump starts now, and it would be far easier if she were confident that Sanders’ supporters were with her.
“Let there be no mistake: Senator Sanders, his campaign and the vigorous debate that we’ve had about how to raise income, reduce inequality, increase upward mobility, have been very good for the Democratic Party and for America,” Clinton said.
Clinton was deferential to Sanders even as she took her victory, praising his supporters for joining the political process and pushing progressive issues to the fore. She hinted that she might co-opt those ideas in a bid to woo Sanders’ allies. But she also flatly made clear that her campaign against him was over. “We all need to keep working toward a better, fairer, stronger America,” Clinton said. “We believe that we are stronger together, and the stakes in this election is high and the choice is clear.”
She urged Sanders’ supporters to link arms with her in a fight against Trump, even though the Sanders-istas were still stinging from the loss. “I know it never feels good to pour your heart into a candidate or a cause and come up short. I know that feeling well,” she said, eight years to the day she conceded the 2008 campaign to Barack Obama.
There was unlikely to be such an exit from Sanders, who scheduled a speech in California for 1 a.m. on East Coast. President Obama called him on Sunday to take his temperature, and phoned him again Tuesday night. Sanders planned to lay off about half of his remaining staff later this week, but asked for a meeting with Obama. The pair is set to meet on Thursday.
“We believe cooperation is better than conflict, unity is better than division, empowerment is better than resentment, and bridges are better than walls,” Clinton told the crowd.
Clinton claimed wins in New Jersey, New Mexico and South Dakota. Montana was just starting to count its ballots. The biggest pot of delegates, however, was California, and polls there suggested a tight race as of midnight on Tuesday. The AP’s coronation of Clinton on its eve was certain to have an impact, although there was little unanimity about what that was.
Yahoo News
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