Barack Obama the black Democratic presidential nomination.....

Senator Barack Obama claimed the Democratic presidential nomination on Tuesday night, prevailing through an epic battle with Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton in a primary campaign that inspired millions of voters from every corner of America to demand change in Washington.

A last-minute rush of Democratic superdelegates, as well as the results from the final primaries in Montana and South Dakota, pushed Mr. Obama over the threshold of winning the 2,118 delegates needed to be nominated at the party's convention in Denver in August.

It was an improbable triumph for Mr. Obama, the son of a black Kenyan father and white Kansan mother, who served as an Illinois state senator just four years ago. In giving Mr. Obama the victory, his party broke a racial barrier.

"You chose to listen not to your doubts or your fears, but to your greatest hopes and highest aspirations," Mr. Obama said at a rally in St. Paul. "Tonight, we mark the end of one historic journey with the beginning of another - a journey that will bring a new and better day to America. Because of you, tonight, I can stand before you and say that I will be the Democratic nominee for president of the United States."

Mrs. Clinton acknowledged that her path to the nomination had closed, but she did not leave the race. "This has been a long campaign and I will be making no decisions tonight," Mrs. Clinton told supporters in New York. She said she would be speaking with party officials about her next move.

Mrs.Clinton paid homage to Mr. Obama's accomplishments, saying, "It has been an honor to contest the primaries with him, just as it has been an honor to call him my friend."

Mr. Obama returned the compliment, saying, "I am a better candidate for having had the honor to compete with Hillary Rodham Clinton."

Mr. Obama's victory moved the presidential campaign to a new phase as he tangled with Senator John McCain of Arizona in televised addresses Tuesday night over Mr. Obama's assertion that Mr. McCain would continue President Bush's policies. - Jeff Zeleny, The New York Times.

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