Clinton's tears as wife backs Obama

BILL Clinton choked back tears as he watched wife Hillary finally surrender the Democratic Presidential ticket to Barack Obama.

The former American leader, 62, struggled with his emotions as he watched his hopes of a return to the White House die.


Wife Hillary formally threw her weight behind her rival for the top job in a passionate speech in Denver, Colorado.


And the 60-year-old ordered her 18 million supporters to back Senator Obama for the White House in the November 4 general election. In an emphatic endorsement of the man who ended her White House dream, she said: “Obama is my candidate and he must be our President.

“I ask all of you who worked so hard for me and contributed so much, to work as hard for Barack Obama in the next few months.”


Obama, 47, was finally nominated last night as the Democratic Party’s presidential candidate.


It came after former first lady Mrs Clinton called for the roll call of votes to be suspended after an hour and for Mr Obama to be nominated by acclamation.


She said she was acting “in the spirit of unity” and urged supporters to put aside any ill feeling towards Obama.


Polls have revealed that many Clinton fans — still smarting over her defeat and Obama’s choice of Joe Biden over Hillary as his running mate — had planned to plump for the Republican candidate John McCain.
Mrs Clinton, given a standing ovation as she took centre stage at the convention, delivered what political analysts called the “biggest speech” of her career.


She urged delegates to remember marines who have served their country, single mums, families living on the minimum wage and other struggling Americans.


She added: “We need Barack Obama and Joe Biden in the White House.”


And she also tore into 71-year-old challenger McCain. She fumed: “No way. No how. No McCain.”

Last night, Bill Clinton took his turn on the Denver stage to pledge his own support for Obama. He joked that he didn't like the challenge of following his wife's speech on Tuesday. But the last Democrat president soon got into his stride and provided a strong message of support for the Illinois senator's campaign.

He attacked George Bush's presidency, laying into the Republican record in the last eight years and said "America can do better than that. Barack Obama WILL do better than that."

More than 90,000 people will pack Denver’s Invesco Stadium to hear Obama’s keynote speech tonight on the 45th anniversary of Martin Luther King’s “I have a dream” address that ignited the US civil rights movement.



THREE men suspected of a race-hate plot to kill Barack Obama were so high on drugs they thought he was staying in their hotel.

Police sources said the “meth-heads”, arrested with sniper rifles and military gear, believed he had checked into their hotel, which costs £120 a night.

Cops now believe there was no credible threat and it was just “racist ranting”.