Obama's triumph

Barack Obama has taken a giant step towards embodying the American dream as it has never been personified before. By securing enough additional delegates to be certain of the Democratic nomination for the United States presidential race, only John McCain, the oldest first-term presidential candidate in US history, stands in the way of Mr Obama becoming the first black man to enter the White House. First, there is the small matter to resolve of Hillary Clinton, who ran Mr Obama hard and close, though not close enough, for the Democratic nomination. It is surely only a matter of time before she concedes and takes her place in team Obama (the exact role is to be the subject of tough negotiation) against Mr McCain's Republicans.